Reaching Out
by Lexy4KagInu
Summary: Kagome has struggled with severe social anxiety as a child. Now she's older and moves back to her hometown in hopes of making friends and having a normal teenage life. She's finding it more difficult to cope with her anxiety as one of her new friends takes a liking to her.
1. Home Sweet Home

_Kagome has struggled with severe social anxiety as a child. Now she's older and moves back to her hometown in hopes of making friends and having a normal teenage life. She's finding it more difficult to cope with her anxiety as one of her new friends takes a liking to her. Rated M for language._

 **I don't own Inuyasha.**

* * *

"Are you sure you have everything you need?" Karori asked softly. Her daughter didn't answer her at first, adjusting her navy hood over her head and keeping her gaze downcast. She glanced up at her mother when she repeated her question and chose not to answer; she instead nodded before turning her gaze down again.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? This is your last chance to say no." Karori nudged her daughter so she could look into her eyes. Her daughter shifted and turned her head slightly in the direction of her mother but still kept her eyes down and nodded again.

"They'll be calling us to board the plane any minute now," she responded almost inaudibly. She gazed longingly out the window. This would be her last time seeing the New York City skyline for some time to come.

Kagome was born in Japan but her mother, Karori, who was a social worker, moved to Manhattan when Kagome was 7 years of age. She was diagnosed with selective mutism as a small child at the age of 4, and her mother decided to relocate to America so that Kagome could see specialists to aid in her condition as she developed. Also Karori could easily find work in the large city. After over a decade of multiple sessions with therapists and other appropriate specialists, Kagome was "treated," or at least, she liked to believe she was.

She insisted to her mother that she wanted to move back to Japan and try to attend a public high school and try having a normal teenage life. She had just turned 17 earlier in the summer and had a learner's permit for driving, but not a license.

Given Kagome's delicate condition, her mother was reluctant to let Kagome do almost anything that involved her leaving the house if not to one of her sessions. She had even been home schooled since she was 7 because she couldn't bear speaking in a class full of children, let alone to her teacher. It'd taken her a while to warm up to her teacher at home, especially when her mother was away at work.

Kagome grew tired of the restricting life of a hermit and was excited and nervous to be going back to her home country, even though she was sad to leave New York. In all honesty she knew Tokyo would be a welcome slice of New York seeing as it also had the same fast-paced and hectic business flow of New York. That, and she was excited to not have to speak English anymore.

She was also excited to see her brother and grandfather again. Her brother was only an infant when Kagome was diagnosed and moved to America with her mother. It was tough on her parents to separate and leave Souta with only his father and grandfather. That, and the death of Kagome's father a couple years after the move made things more stressful for Karori. But Kagome's grandfather was in delicate condition and couldn't afford to locate Souta to America with his mother and sister, and Karori's income heavily went toward her daughter's special treatment, so he was raised by his grandfather most of his life. Kagome and Karori would visit for a month every summer then return to America.

To help Kagome maintain contact with everyone she knew in Tokyo, she was heavily encouraged to write and call to her old acquaintances whether they be her grandfather, cousins, or her childhood friend, Sango.

Kagome smiled, remembering how she and Sango literally used to share a crib. Kagome's and Sango's mothers were very close and had their daughters around the same time. Every summer Kagome would visit her family, Sango would stay over almost every night. She was the only non-blood person Kagome was completely at ease with other than her teacher and therapists.

"Aren't you happy to be leaving this place?" Kagome asked her mother quietly. Karori smiled.

"Not so much happy to be leaving as I am to be back in Japan." She placed her hand lightly over her daughter's, stroking the back of her hand with her thumb and leaning her head on top of Kagome's.

"I didn't know you liked it here so much."

"It's a good place for work. Anyway, aren't you happy you don't have to speak English anymore? I certainly am." Karori chuckled. Kagome shook slightly as she also chuckled slightly.

"S'not so bad. I learned at a young age at least."

" **Now boarding flight 127 to Los Angeles."**

Kagome grabbed her backpack and she and her mother stood up. "That's us," she said as she slung her pack over her shoulder. She and Karori would make a stop in California, then to Japan from there. They found their seats on the plane and listened to the flight announcements before powering down their electronics and taking off. Kagome pressed her hand lightly against the glass of the window as the City that Never Sleeps disappeared out of her view. She plugged in her headphones and started up her iPod and leaned on her mother's shoulder, trying to nap most of the 6 hour flight away...

Kagome and Karori hailed a cab from the airport to their old family shrine. Their flight landed just shy of 5 in the afternoon, and Kagome wanted nothing more than to go to her old bedroom and sleep for 14 hours straight. Her mother had set up a meeting with a high school principal 3 days before the school year was set to start. Kagome never bothered to ask, but she could guess the meeting was to inform her teachers and principal of her condition as a precaution in the event that she becomes unresponsive or has a breakdown.

Kagome rolled her eyes. As practice for interacting in a public high school, (and for her mother's mental health) Kagome had taken a self defense class for 2 months. In a way it was easy for her, seeing as she was very rarely put in the spotlight for having to speak to a group of people, only to introduce herself. She hadn't exactly made friends but she got along rather well with most of her classmates, especially seeing as most of them were out of her age group, being either smaller children or adults. And the gathering usually consisted of less than 20 people.

She was starting to recognize the area she was in and felt a twinge of excite unfurl in her gut, despite her fatigue. She was really, truly home in the heart of Tokyo. She almost squealed in delight when they pulled up to the familiar staircase that led up to the shrine. She saw her grandfather and brother at the top of the steps and they rushed down the stairs upon seeing the cab pull up.

"It's so good to see you!" Karori exclaimed and Souta practically ripped her out of the cab and into a bear hug. He was relatively tall for a 13 year old. Tall, but lanky, with unkempt short black hair and warm brown eyes. He towered right over his mother as he pulled her in for a hug. Kagome smiled and shook her head as she handed the cab driver his tip.

"Would you like some help with your bags, Miss?" he asked Kagome. She took a deep breath and whispered a "no thank you" before stepping out of the car to get the bags out of the trunk.

"Look at how much you've grown!" Karori was still holding onto her son and Kagome struggled with the luggage.

"Share her, boy!" Kagome's grandfather chimed in as he pulled in his daughter for a much gentler hug. Souta bounded to the back of the cab to assist Kagome.

He beamed down at her. "Wow, Kagome, look at you. You haven't grown and inch since you turned 12." he teased and Kagome blushed as he pulled her into a quick hug. Kagome knew he was just teasing, but it was the truth. She'd been 154 centimeters (about 5 feet) for as long as she could remember. She was petite and slim, with long raven hair and blue-gray eyes. She hugged her brother and shrugged him off, grinning back at him.

"We can't all grow up to be a string bean." she laughed as he rolled her eyes at her.

"Let me help you with those," her grandfather said and Kagome gave him a quick hug.

"I've missed you, Gramps," she grinned as he kissed her cheek.

They brought their luggage upstairs and started to talk and get settled in. Kagome's grandfather had already prepared dinner with the help of Souta and they ate and enjoyed each other's company for a while before Kagome retreated to her old bedroom to unpack.

As she was hanging her clothes in her closet, Souta appeared behind her.

"Sango wants you to call her as soon as you get settled in." he said. Kagome gave him a soft "okay" before going back to her clothes. Once she finished putting all of her stuff away, she decided to strip and take a nice long bath. She sat on closed toilet seat as she waited for the tub to fill, dumping in her essential bathing oils. She tied her hair up onto a bun before she hopped in. She didn't feel like washing it and wadding through her things for her hair dryer just yet. So she only unpacked her clothes and decided to do the rest tomorrow morning.

Usually her baths lasted about a half hour as she often treated herself to tea and music during. Donning the cordless from her brother's room real quick, she got situated in the hot bath as she dialed Sango's number.

She picked up before the first ring and squealed loudly, causing Kagome to hold to phone out away from her ear as she laughed.

"OH MY GOD!" she heard Sango exclaim. "How ARE you? Are you all settled? Did you unpack everything? Are you nervous about school yet?"

"Sango-holy crap... can I answer one question at a time please?" Kagome giggled.

"I've missed you so much!"

"I missed you too. And no, I haven't unpacked everything. I mean if you wanna come over tomorrow and help me..." she trailed off as Sango exhaled.

"Of course. I kinda figured you'd get severe jet lag. New York is how many hours behind Japan?"

"Fourteen?" Kagome picked at her nails as she set the phone down in the soap dish with the hands-free on. "Sango I'm _so_ happy to be back. I can't tell you how much of a pain it is to have to speak English to everyone but Mama."

"Well soon you'll be surrounded by Japanese-speaking youth. Are you really ready for public school?"

"Yeah. At least I feel ready. I've been doing really well in therapy and my medication definitely helped. I just hope you and I have at least one class together."

Sango snorted. "Tell your mom when she goes to that meeting tomorrow to match your schedule with mine. Since you've known me forever."

"'Since we were the twinkle in the eyes of our fathers,'" Kagome laughed, quoting Sango's reference to their pre-birth friendship.

"Oh my God yes! And remember, no more waking up and sitting with instructors in your pajamas. Instead there's a dress code."

"Yeah, Mama told me there's a uniform. She's going to pick it up tomorrow at the meeting. What's the point of uniforms anyway?"

Sango snorted. "So you don't look like a prostitute, or dress like you're affiliated with a gang. I honestly think the uniforms are cute. Girls wear black plaid skirts with a tucked in white blouse and optional bow or tie. Boys wear black pants with a blazer or vest over a dress shirt."

"Oh, that's not so bad then. I wore something similar to that before."

"Exactly."

"So what am I to expect at a public high school?" Kagome raised a brow. "Any bullies or cult organizations I should be aware of?"

"God, I hope not," Sango giggled. At Kagome's pause, she continued. "Look, it's not as bad as you see in movies. No one is gonna punch you in the face or try to shove you into a trash can on your first day."

"But everyone smokes weed and pops pills and has sex in an old pick up truck in the back of their step dad's house?"

Sango burst into laughter. Kagome frowned. In a way she was being serious. She hadn't attended a public school since she was a child. She only had references to high school based on what she saw on TV.

"Well I can't say no to that question but not _everyone_ is into that kinda stuff." Sango affirmed.

Kagome snorted. "Right. So about this new boyfriend of yours..."

Sango dropped something in the background and cursed as she dove for it. Kagome bit back a laugh.

"Yeah about _that_. He's a sweetheart. If you want, I can bring him over tomorrow so you can meet him before school starts. Maybe it'll be easier seeing as it won't be such a big crowd."

"Tell me about him." Kagome said distractedly.

"Well his name is Miroku Houshi-"

"Cute." Kagome grinned as Sango howled. She could picture her friend turning bright pink as she swooned over her newfound lover.

"Shut up! His name is Miroku and he's tall and uses big words when he talks and he's into banking and stuff."

"So he's cute and he's a pick pocket," Kagome teased.

"No! I'm gonna punch you!" Sango laughed. "He's a really sweet guy. I told him a lot about you too. I think you guys will get along fine. I even showed him that picture of you that I took last summer and he _still_ thinks you're adorable."

Kagome's eyes widened. "Sango you _didn't!_ " Sango could be heard laughing and snorting on the other end of the phone as Kagome turned red in embarrassment. Last summer during Kagome's stay there, Sango and Kagome had a sleepover the night of Kagome's 16th birthday and Karori was taking pictures of the event.

When it came down to singing happy birthday, Kagome was given a giant chocolate tiered cake with a 1 and 6 candle on the top. Right at the moment they finished singing and Kagome was to make her wish and blow out the candles, she inhaled to blow and instead ended up sneezing. Karori caught the glorious moment of Kagome at the climax of her sneeze with spittle coming out of her mouth as she _sneezed_ her candles out. It was the single funniest memory that Sango had of Kagome and _begged_ Karori to email her the picture so that she could bask in the moment forever.

And Sango was still laughing as Kagome recalled the most embarrassing birthday she'd ever had.

"No, I'm kidding, but come on, Kagome. Anyone who sees that picture and still wants to be a part of your life must really love you." Sango spazzed out laughing again as Kagome fumed.

"Yeah yeah..." Kagome muttered. "So have you and Miroku...?" she trailed off sluggishly.

"No, though honestly he's a little perv. He can't be discreet about anything sexual. And he often turns non-sexual things into a sexual thing. Drives me nuts."

"Let me guess. 'That's what she said' jokes?"

"Not just that."

"Fine you can bring him over. Maybe if I don't have a class with you I'll have one with him? I have to know _somebody_."

Sango paused. "Kagome, are you honestly gonna try to make friends?"

"Of course. My therapist says it'd be good for me. And he thinks I'll be fine. I mean I'm not striving to be the most popular girl in school or anything, but I wanna at least have my little clique of friends." she explained.

"Well in that case, I'll introduce you to my group of friends. We can all be a _group thang_. And everyone has the same lunch period so just sit at my table and I'll introduce you to everyone and you're in the club." Sango smiled. She liked the idea of her modern friends becoming close with her overly anxious long term best friend.

"Yeah... how many people are we talking about?" Kagome asked nervously.

Sango thought for a moment. "Maybe 6 people?"

"Okay, that doesn't sound too bad." Kagome smiled. She like the idea of having a small group of close friends. Maybe high school really wouldn't be so bad.

"Look, if you want, I can tell them all about your situation so that they're more understanding in case you uh... shut down..."

"No, Sango, I want the full experience of going to a new school and making friends and forgetting about what a freak I am." Kagome insisted.

"Okay, but do you at least wanna walk to school together? I can meet you at your shrine with Miroku."

"Yeah sure, that sounds great."

"And don't forget to ask your mom to request you having all classes with me."

"I will." Kagome sighed. "Look, Sango I'm gonna head to bed. I'm exhausted. Come over tomorrow whenever you want, okay? My mom doesn't mind."

"You think she'd let me stay over on the night before school so we can go together?" Sango asked hopefully. Kagome shrugged.

"You have to ask? Sango you could literally walk into my house at 3 am and my mom would just give you a blanket and a pillow." she giggled.

"Then it's settled! I'll bring Miroku over tomorrow and school is in a couple days. We have to go shopping for your supplies." Kagome smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Sango it's after 8. I'm gonna hit the hay."

"Okay. Night, Kagome. See ya in the morning."

"Goodnight." Kagome hung up and stretched. She rinsed off the suds and pulled the plug from the drain. She toweled off quickly and pulled on a camisole and a pair of underwear. She usually slept in her undergarments, even if Sango stayed over.

Staring at herself in the mirror, she pondered whether or not she should wear make up to school. She wasn't one for dolling up to go out, but if she was gonna be around people her age, she wanted to make a good impression.

Not that she wasn't attractive. Kagome wasn't one to go all out and say she really really ugly or really beautiful. She viewed herself as moderately attractive. She was realistic about her image. That, and a lot of her therapy session were devoted to boosting her self esteem.

Deciding not to deal with her hair until morning, Kagome left it in a messy bun and climbed into bed.

Tomorrow, she would be a teenager. She would meet Sango's boyfriend and interact with him and go out shopping and socializing. It was a start to her new, productive social life.

She desperately didn't want to screw it up.

* * *

 **I have returned, with a new story, yet my others are still on hiatus. I really wanted to get this up because it's devoted to a friend of mine who struggled with selective mutism. But he's come a long way now. I will try to finish my other stories on the side... Can'** **t guarantee it'll be soon.**

 **I did make end up making a major change to the story starting with this chapter... It didn't dawn on me to include a uniform policy and seeing as this is Japan, it simply couldn't be overlooked. I was kinda aiming at a Ling Xiaoyu school uniform, but in all black rather than blue and green, and with the skirt pulled up a bit higher on the body, kinda like a dress...**

 **To those of you who don't know, selective mutism is a severe social anxiety disorder that tends occur in children who have family members with a long history of anxiety. It often results in the child having inability to speak around certain people, in large groups such as classrooms, or in certain situations, and they tend to freeze up or speak very quietly or whisper when spoken to. One of the best treatments for selective mutism is for the child to make friends and boost their self esteem so this is the start of Kagome's attempt at a normal social life.**

 **Please let me know what you think!**


	2. New Beginning

_Kagome has struggled with severe social anxiety as a child. Now she's older and moves back to her hometown in hopes of making friends and having a normal teenage life. She's finding it more difficult to cope with her anxiety as one of her new friends takes a liking to her. Rated M for language._

 **I just want to make it clear that everyone in this story is strictly human. There are no demon or priestess characters in this story. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru both have black hair and no canine/demon features.**

* * *

Kagome was up the next morning making an omelet. Her mother had left for the meeting with her principal and Kagome requested to have classes with Sango and her mother made a note of it. Kagome thanked her, though in the back of her mind she wanted to believe she could get through her first day of her junior year without holding Sango's hand. As long as she had friends to sit with at lunch, she believed she'd be well off and would focus on her studies otherwise.

She recalled a very brief point in her life where she attended a private all-girl school when she turned 15. Her mother hoped that her being around only females would be easier on Kagome, but it had no effect. In all honesty, it wasn't the anxiety that kept her from talking to people—not that Kagome was one to initiate conversation–but there was simply nothing interesting about her female schoolmates that drew her in and made her _want_ to talk to them. Kagome often found herself in situations where she was either so intently focused on her teacher that she was able to tune out the mindless chatter, or she was staring into her lap at an isolated table as she was mocked by her classmates. Kagome may not be one to start conversation, but she definitely understood the difference between teasing and being a bully when someone said something sour about her.

That was the problem with young girls that had money in the family and everything they ever wanted. They were too girly and stuck up, and Kagome often found herself being picked on because she never interacted with anyone. She didn't blame the girls though. It was easy to mistake someone with selective mutism for a mute. And thus, Kagome only lasted two months of her freshmen year there. It was the closest she'd ever been to being in a school full of kids her age since she was a toddler.

Her mother immediately took Kagome out of the school and decided she'd just have to be home schooled for the time being. Luckily with Karori being a social worker, she was able to locate and provide the right kind of special therapists for Kagome's condition. After undergoing years of Play Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Kagome was deemed "cured" and her psychotherapist called off the sessions, saying she made incredible progress. However, he requested to be able to check in on Kagome occasionally to see how things were holding up for her and told Kagome's mother that enrolling her into a public school would encourage her to reach out to others in her age group.

She had finished cooking her breakfast and cleaning her mess when she heard a knock at the door. ' _That would be Sango and Miroku,'_ she mused as she opened the door to barely catch a glimpse of her best friend before she was tackled. Kagome squealed in delight as she caught her friend before she was thrown into the staircase. Sango was laughing like a maniac.

"Hello there, Sango," Kagome laughed as her friend finally let her stand up straight. Kagome smoothed out her tank top she slept in. She had put on shorts before heading downstairs. It was the end of August and the air was still warm and summery. Sango was wearing a soft pink knee length summer dress and her hair was in its usual high ponytail.

The young man behind her was striking to say the least, his deep blue eyes stood out, and he had small hoop earring in his ears. His smile was warm and friendly. Kagome liked him immediately.

"Kagome, this is Miroku. Miroku, this is Kagome." Sango introduced them, watching Kagome closely to make sure she wouldn't panic. Miroku mirrored Sango's expression and Kagome suppressed a sigh. Sango told him.

"Kagome, I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you." he bowed his head slightly. Kagome tried not to grimace at her friend and faced Miroku. She took a deep breath and gave him a warm smile.

"Hi," she said quietly. Sango grinned.

"It's a start." she smiled at Kagome, who stepped to the side and gestured for them to come in. She glared at Sango a bit and she sighed.

"Babe, I'll be right there," Sango said to Miroku as Kagome crossed her arms and stared at her friend. "Look, he's the only person I told, I swear. And I told him a long time ago, before I knew you wanted it to be a secret."

Kagome rolled her eyes and shook her head before gesturing for her friend to follow her into the kitchen. "I made eggs if you guys want some." she said.

"We already ate, but thank you." Miroku said, looking around the kitchen. Sango rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to be so formal with her, Miroku. She wants to be treated like a normal person." she scoffed.

"Well yeah but I just met her and she gave me permission to enter her home. I think it's a good excuse to be formal." He glanced at Kagome and she grinned at him.

She was also grinning because she was pleased with herself. This wasn't hard at all. So far so good. Kagome squared her shoulders and shifted her weight to one foot, putting her hands on her hips.

"Is Sango making you go shopping with us today?" Kagome asked him.

"I don't mind. Not like we're going shopping for clothes or something, right?" he glanced at Sango.

"No, we just need to get Kagome some school supplies. I think she's covered with the uniform. And I'm assuming that being Karori's only daughter, you grew up quite affluently?"

Kagome raised a brow in amusement. Sango knew full well Kagome was well off. Even though she hardly ever went out in New York, she usually was dressed nicely when she went out to a therapy session or if her and her mother had dinner in public. Aside from that, Kagome dressed nicely for her own comfort. A big part of her treatment was boosting her self esteem and dressing up usually helped her feel good about her image. She still pondered whether or not she should wear make up but honestly didn't feel she needed it. The cosmetic industry made billions from women who were trying to attain smooth flawless skin like hers.

"Well seeing as you're gonna be sleeping over the night before school, I figured you'd help me pick through my wardrobe for something that's trendy with you young folk." she bit back a laugh, impressed with herself for maintaining conversation with someone new. "But seeing as I will be dressed exactly like you and every other girl in school, I supposed that's a moot point."

Sango picked a piece of egg off Kagome's plate and placed it in her mouth. "I know your mom doesn't mind me staying over but did you at least tell her?"

"Nope." she paused to chew. "Miroku, you can sit. The chairs don't bite." she said, trying to maintain eye contact. Miroku pulled out a chair across from Kagome next to Sango.

"Are you excited about a new environment?" he asked Kagome. "New school, new people. New language."

Kagome snorted. "I grew up speaking English and Japanese. And I am nervous but I'm also excited. I'm determined to make new friends." she smiled and Miroku's eyes softened. Kagome continued. "I'm nervous in the sense that this is my first time attending public school since I was a small child. And I don't usually associate with anyone around my age other than Sango. I might as well tell you since my secret is out to you." she glared at Sango again.

"You're doing a great job. I just don't wanna make it hard for you." he said.

"It's... not that people make it hard... When one has what I have... certain things trigger you to freeze up and become unresponsive, whether it's large crowds or specific locations or people or memories. Even small things like certain foods can trigger one to become unresponsive."

"Really?" Miroku's brows shot up.

Sango chipped in. "People with selective mutism tend to be very picky eaters. Good luck getting Kagome to eat ass." she joked and Kagome tried not to choke on her egg as she laughed. Miroku joined in and soon they were all in stitches. Kagome wiped a tear from her eye as she calmed down.

"Tell me more about high school." she said dreamily.

"What do you wanna know?" Miroku asked.

Kagome thought for a moment. "Tell me about your friends. Sango said you guys have a clique already and that I can join you for lunch. I wanna get a good idea of what characters to expect." she clasped her hands together and rested her chin on top of them, staring intently at Miroku and Sango, who looked at each other and started laughing.

"Who should we start with?" Sango exclaimed. Miroku laughed.

"Well... Kouga is loud and aggressive and competitive. And to be honest he's kind of an asshole. Our one friend Ayame admitted to liking him but he shrugged her off and constantly uses her feelings against her and makes fun of her."

Sango finshed, "But then he'll go back and act like all the girls love him when in reality he shuns the only girl who seems to show interest. Either that or he'll say something stupid to get her hopes up. And honestly he's quite a pervert, too. Poor Ayame..."

"And what's Ayame like?" Kagome asked.

"She's a sweetheart but she can be a ditz." Sango said without hesitation and Miroku started laughing.

"Are we horrible people for talking about our friends like this?" he asked and Sango shook her head.

"I mean we all joke around and talk shit to each other anyway so..." she started laughing. Kagome joined in and giggled, becoming excited about Sango's friends. The more she heard about them, the more she wanted to meet them.

There were quite a few that they mentioned. Kagome paid close attention to Miroku and Sango going back and forth giving their opinion of their friends. There was Kouga who was a hot-headed jerk, but also tended to add comedic relief to almost every situation and tried to put himself out there as a ladies' man. Ayame was a sweet, ditzy red haired girl who had a huge crush on Kouga that she didn't seem to be ashamed of. Rin was the sweetheart of the group, who tended to add unexpected sexual humor to a lot of situations which threw people off a lot. According to Sango and Miroku, she was a lot younger than the rest of the group, but she was very nice and happened to be dating Sesshomaru, who was a senior and one of the more intimidating and respected students in the school. He had a younger brother named Inuyasha, who was also a hot head and often competed with Kouga over _everything_. Miroku said he was known to be a trash talker who tried to act tough but was actually a big cuddly teddy bear, to which Kagome giggled.

Kagome's mother came home shortly after their conversation with Kagome's uniform and announced that the school couldn't perfectly duplicate Sango's schedule for Kagome, but that they wouldn't make note of her disorder and try to give them as many classes together as possible. Students would receive their schedule and student handbook on the first day of school in Homeroom and Homeroom usually had a certain amount of students per room based on the initial of their last name. Seeing as Kagome's last initial was H, she'd likely have homeroom with Miroku, to which she was glad she'd start a day knowing at least one person. Sango's last name was Miyagi, so she would likely not have homeroom with Kagome.

Miroku accompanied the girls to a pharmacy where Kagome bought her school supplies. She'd decided to go with black and white hard cover composition notebooks, seeing as they had more pages than a standard college ruled notebook. She bought mechanical pencils, ballpoint pens, and a binder for her loose-leaf paper or worksheets, and a pack of colored sharpies.

It was the night before school started, and Kagome and Sango were up talking, gathering their things for the day to come, and chatting excitedly as they picked out their _epic_ first day outfits. Kagome had to admit, she did think the uniform was rather trendy as she carefully ironed her clothes. Sango told her that a bow tie or regular tie was optional, so Kagome opted for a stylish black bow at the base of her collar. Her uniform also came with matching black socks, which Kagome was able to choose between just beneath the knee, mid-shin, or thigh height. She chose knee length.

"Someone wants to show off her shapely legs," Sango teased as Kagome rolled her eyes.

Kagome had just about every color Converse sneakers and usually matched them with her outfits. But she doubted sneakers would look nice with such a dressy outfit, and borrowed a pair of Sango's school shoes. She finished ironing her clothes and laid them neatly and pulled her hair into a tight braid to sleep in, so she could have curly hair in the morning. Sango decided to wake up _really_ early so that they could be the first to school and get their schedules and Sango could show Kagome where her classes were.

* * *

That morning they got up early as planned and as Kagome waited for Sango to finish her shower, Karori gave her a couple Zoloft pills, in case she needed it. The two friends got dressed and headed out to catch the train. The train ride reminded Kagome of New York, where she rode the C train into Brooklyn for her therapy sessions. It was nice to still have the hustle and bustle life of New York. When they got to the school, Sango led Kagome to the designated homeroom for Junior students with the last initials G-J. Kagome picked up her schedule and reviewed it carefully with Sango.

 **Period 1:** _Law/Citizen_

 **Period 2:** _Biology_

 **Period 3:** _Calculus_

 **Period 4:** _Creative Writing_

 **Period 5:** _Home Ec._

 **Lunch**

 **Period 6:** _Language Arts_

 **Period 7:** _Phys Ed._

 **Period 8:** _Spare_

Kagome studied her schedule and accompanied Sango as she retrieved hers off her homeroom teacher. The girls excitedly compared schedules and squealed in delight. They had almost all the same classes, with the exception of second and fifth period. Sango continued to escort Kagome through the school, showing her all the important rooms like the library, auditorium, gym, changing rooms, bathrooms, and least but not least, the cafeteria.

The cafeteria had a breakfast program and was serving, much to Kagome's amusement. Upon closer speculation, it looked like they were serving scrambled eggs and sausage with French toast sticks. Students were showing up early for the meal and all around the school, filling up the hallways and classrooms with excited chatter. Kagome was overwhelmed, but not in a bad way.

Although she was dreading that one of the classes that she didn't have with Sango, was right before lunch. ' _How on Earth am I gonna find her?'_ she asked herself as Sango continued to show her where all of her classes were. It was easy enough to find them seeing as the room number was on her schedule and the first number was the floor that the room was on. Otherwise, all Kagome had to do was walk in a giant square and she'd eventually find her class.

It was gonna be fun going from the first floor to the sixth floor. The bell rung, signaling all the students to go to their respective homerooms and Sango hugged Kagome. "I'll see you in a few. Homeroom is only about twenty minutes. You okay?"

Kagome gave her a soft, reassuring smile. She was a nervous wreck at this point, but she felt it to be normal for the first day of school rather than a panic attack. "I'll be fine. Besides, Miroku is in my homeroom. He'll look after me."

"He better or I'll kick his ass." Sango teased. "See ya." she said and walked off toward her homeroom. Kagome made her way to her respective homeroom and immediately spotted Miroku, who patted the seat behind him. Bless him, Kagome thought as she took her seat. The homeroom teacher went through the basic first day announcements and took attendance, handed out the student handbooks and medical cards, and gave instructions on where and what to fill out and to have it in by the end of the following week. Finally, the students were given a lock combination and directions to their locker.

When the teacher finished talking, Miroku immediately engaged Kagome in conversation, and she felt at ease for the most part. She compared her schedule with Miroku and found out they had Calculus and Language Arts together. A boy nearby with brown hair and blue eyes butted into their conversation.

"Higurashi? Would you happen to be a relative of the Shrine keeper?" he asked Kagome who blushed.

"Yes." she said quietly. "He's my grandfather."

"That's neat. I'm Akitoki Hojo. I hear they have quite a bit of interesting artifacts there, dating back to the feudal era."

Kagome didn't really know how to respond, so she smiled quite awkwardly and nodded her head yes again. This boy wasn't about to lose her attention just yet.

"So I take it you're shy? That's okay, I won't bite." he said. Kagome knew he wasn't trying to come off as a weirdo, but she didn't know what to say in response, so she shrugged her shoulders and Miroku cleared his throat.

"Probably just nervous about the first day. It's normal." he said and Kagome somewhat relaxed as she stuffed her handbook into her backpack. The bell for first period was about to ring, and she wanted to get away from Hojo's curious eyes.

"Or she can't understand Japanese," another voice chided in. Kagome turned her head toward the source of the voice and was met by dark eyes in a pale, sneering face. The girl she was looking at seemed tall, with long, straight cut hair. "That girl is from _America_. She isn't use to being away from her fellow _weeaboos_."

Kagome was taken aback. If she wasn't mistaken, that was meant to be an insult. And she wasn't even sure what a weeaboo was. She continued to stare at the girl, who looked at her with an expectant, challenging look.

"Cat got your tongue?" she added and Kagome felt a sharp pang of irritation.

"Enough, Kikyo. Leave her alone." Miroku butted in and the girl scoffed and turned her head away.

Kagome gulped and Miroku apologized for the girl's snide comments. "What's a weeaboo?" she whispered.

"A wanna-be Japenese."

"Oh." Kagome lamely let it drop and her heart sank as the bell rang. She hurried out of the room, brushing past Miroku and Kikyo and hurried in search of her locker. She found it on the second floor, conveniently right across from the girls' bathroom, and tried her lock. ' _Thirty, zero, eight,'_ she chanted in her head, and was pleased when the lock opened on her first try. She shoved her handbook into her locker and hurried to her first class, Law and Citizen.

Before she left America, Kagome looked on the school's website at their class choices and was able to email her new guidance counselor when she finished deciding which classes she wanted to take. She was required to take a literature and writing class, a science class, a math class, gym, and two years of a language, which the school conveniently offered the English language for an easy A. Since Kagome had 2 language credits from her old school, she wasn't required to take a language course again, but she chose to anyway. The remaining classes she got to choose from.

She chose Law and Citizen because she knew the basic rights and freedoms she had as an American, but as a Japanese, she wasn't as educated. She was one of the first students in the room and rushed into a seat at the very back of the room. Sango entered shortly after and Kagome waved her over to sit next to her. She immediately felt back at ease with her best friend by her side.

They chatted excitedly for a few minutes before the teacher called the class to order. It was a simple day. According to Sango, the first day of school was usually just to get to know the teachers and what to expect in the class and what the teacher expected of the students... all that jazz. The class came to a close with about 2 minutes to spare and Kagome told Sango she wanted to use the opportunity to hurry to her next class so she could choose her seat. Kagome basically wanted to sit as far in the back as possible in all of her classes. Sango stood outside of Kagome's Biology class with her and chatted until the bell rang.

"See you in an hour." she hugged Kagome before walking away. Kagome stood by the side of the door and waited for all the students to exit the Junior Biology room before she rushed in.

Her timing was off, however, when she rushed into the room to collide with someone so hard that she stumbled backwards and fell on her butt. She yelped in surprise as she hit the floor, and the person she bumped into still stood tall, hovering over her, in fact. He stretched out his arms and tried to catch her, but he wasn't quick enough.

"Oh!" she heard him yell. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I didn't see you there." he stammered apologies as Kagome sat in a daze.

She gazed up at the powerhouse that towered over her, his hand still extended to help her stand up. She looked first at his hand, then up to his eyes, which were an incredible shade of amber. His handsome face was contorted into a worried frown and before she realized it, she placed her hand in his and he was pulling her to her feet. She stumbled again and fell against him and he lightly gripped her shoulders to steady her.

"Are you okay?" he asked again and Kagome didn't even hear him. She was overwhelmed by how tall he was. And handsome at that. He raised a brow as he studied her features.

 _'She's pretty,'_ he thought, almost in surprise. He was watching her carefully, wondering why she hadn't spoken to him yet. Kagome felt the familiar stuttering in her chest as she started to hyperventilate. Not here, she couldn't panic here. Other students were stating to fill the room, stepping around the couple in their awkward embrace. Right when the boy was about to ask her again, she tore out of his arms and rushed toward the back of the room and sat down in a daze. She could feel his eyes as they followed her to her seat, but she buried her face in her hands, praying he would be gone when the teacher started the class.

He tried to help her. And she panicked when she looked into his eyes. She didn't wanna have to revert to the days when she couldn't talk to anyone who wasn't her mom. She took a few deep breaths, infinitely depressed that Sango wasn't in this class with her. She tried to steady her nerves and squared her chin before looking back at the teacher and trying to focus on the class.

The class went by smoothly once Kagome pushed thoughts of the boy out of her head. ' _Th_ _ere are over twenty-eight hundred students at this school.'_ she thought to herself as she made her way to Calculus. ' _I doubt I'll ever even bump into him again.'_

And with that thought, she was completely at ease again. She met up with Sango and Miroku in her math class and arranged to sit with both of them with Kagome and Sango in two of the back seats and Miroku in front of Sango. Sango immediately noticed that something was up with Kagome and demanded to know but the teacher called the class to attention. They conversed for a while after as the math teacher didn't seem to be too excited with introducing himself.

"So what happened?" Sango immediately demanded.

Kagome flipped her hair over her shoulder to hide part of her face. This was known to Sango as a nervous gesture as she watched Kagome's little frame become stiff with tension.

"I uh," she winced as her voice shook and Sango's heart shattered seeing her tiny friend revert to her shy, quiet voice she used when she was nervous or upset. "I bumped into somebody and I fell. And it's not like he was aggressive about it. He actually helped me up and apologized to me. But when I looked at his face–" she stopped.

"You got anxious?" Sango finished and Kagome nodded.

"That hasn't happened to me in a long time. I was worried." she explained.

"Look, maybe you were just embarrassed because you fell. It's not your fault or his fault if you guys didn't see each other. Just take this one day at a time, Kagome. It's alright." Sango cooed and Kagome nodded. The bell rang for their next class: Creative Writing. Sango and Kagome were, of course, among the first to enter and went straight for the back.

' _First female teacher I've seen today,_ ' Kagome thought bemusedly as she settled in. This particular class was a popular one and Kagome was lucky she got in; her guidance counselor told her there was literally only one opening for the class and Kagome seized it happily. Creative writing was a class devoted to literature, essays, poems, all things that Kagome often indulged herself in during her free time.

Right at the moment she started to feel excited for schoolwork for the first time that day, the boy from earlier walked in. The boy she collided into in her Biology class. He was wearing a nice button up shirt, like Kagome, with matching plaid pants and a vest with the school logo on his breast. His eyes locked with Sango's as he grinned. Kagome's heart stopped when she saw his smile.

"What's up, Sango? Long time no see." he greeted her casually. They were obviously good friends. Sango smiled back at him as he took the seat in front of her. He hadn't noticed Kagome yet.

"Nothing really." she responded.

"You and Miroku still together, I see. Kid never shuts up about you." he turned his whole body around to face Sango as the teacher was still greeting students and hadn't started the class.

"Oh leave him alone. You're just jealous because he has the most awesome girlfriend ever and you're lonelier than the number one."

"Yeah because you're _so_ awesome," he rolled his eyes. His beautiful golden eyes.

"Speaking of awesome girlfriends," Sango gestured toward Kagome. Her eyes widened when he turned his head and his expression fell a bit as he immediately recognized her. "This is my childhood friend, Kagome. Kagome, this is Inuyasha."

 _'Inuyasha_ ,' Kagome repeated in her head. Of course she recognized the name. Sango and Miroku brought him up when she asked about their close friends. He was the competitive little brother, the smart ass who was secretly a teddy bear. If there was one thing Kagome was good for, it was her attention span and her ability to read people's expressions. This boy who had been so apologetic earlier, now looked at her like she was the embarrassing friend who people hoped wouldn't blurt out something stupid in a social situation.

However, he masked his emotions well as he nodded toward her politely. "Hiya, Kagome." he said in a low voice. Kagome gulped as her pupils dilated. Sango instantly noticed Kagome's reaction and was about to try to divert Inuyasha's attention when the teacher called the class to order.

Kagome was trying to pay attention and ignore the intimidating boy who sat only 3 feet away from her. Suddenly, a folded piece of paper landed on her desk and she slowly opened it. It was Sango's handwriting.

 _What's wrong?_

Kagome picked up one of her ballpoint pens and quickly scratched something onto the paper before flicking it back at Sango. However, her horrible aim caused her to flick the little paper at Inuyasha's arm where it rested in one of the creases on his shirt. He picked it up and gave Kagome a curious look when he saw that her bright blue-gray eyes were wide as saucers and opened the paper, not realizing it wasn't meant for him. Sango bit her lip but knew she couldn't rip the note off Inuyasha without drawing attention to herself. Kagome's pulse quickened as she watched him read her reply to Sango's question.

 _That's him._

 **Please review!**


	3. Meet the Crew

**Made some small changes to this chapter.**

* * *

Kagome's heart stuttered and her stomach did little flips as she watched Inuyasha. The side of his cheek tensed as if he was grimacing, and he sent a glance back at the blushing girl. She was staring at Sango, who he realized was looking at him. He flushed a bit. The girl, Kagome, must have flicked the little paper at him on accident. He cleared his throat and brought up his arms, pretending to stretch, and dropped the paper on Sango's desk.

How discreet of him.

He didn't understand what was going on. The only time he ever recalled seeing the girl was in the Junior Biology room. He'd been in a hurry to leave the room because he had to pee before his next class, but in his haste accidentally grabbed his backpack upside down, causing his books to spill out. After he gathered them, he shuffled hurriedly toward the door, so fast that when someone small stepped into the room, she was immediately knocked back. He tried to grab her shoulders before she fell, but faltered and watched the poor girl stumble onto her bum.

When he asked if she was okay, she didn't respond, and only stared into his eyes with a bewildered look on her small, sweet face.

 _'Did I frighten her?'_ he thought to himself as he glanced at the girl again over his shoulder, trying not to be too obvious about it. She'd brushed her long hair over her shoulder so he couldn't see the left side of her face, but he could see she was staring into her lap, blushing strongly. He could feel Sango's eyes on the back of his head. Maybe, based on the note, Sango also didn't understand why the girl was so disturbed earlier.

Sango was confused. She believed what her friend told her about bumping into Inuyasha. She figured Kagome was just very embarrassed to have toppled over in front of people the way she did. That was understandable, but the way she reacted to Inuyasha the second time didn't sit right with her. Sango had known Inuyasha since middle school. He was a good guy. Sure, he had a potty mouth and a bit of an attitude, but she never had an issue with him.

Sango tore another piece of paper out of her notebook and scribbled another note. One would think she would just text Kagome, but Kagome had yet to get a provider in Japan. She passed the note to Kagome, who almost didn't notice it at first.

Kagome opened the note: _You wanna tell me what exactly is bothering you?_

She pursed her lips and wrote below: _I don't know why, but that boy makes me uncomfortable._

Sango read the note and raised a brow at her friend. _Kagome, he's harmless. I've known him for years._

Kagome: _I know, and like I said, he helped me up and apologized but I could barely stand looking at him without feeling nervous._

Sango: _Maybe you like him?_ She drew a winky face and Kagome had to suppress a groan. He was attractive, yes, but that meant little to Kagome.

Kagome: _Like him? Honestly? I barely know the guy. I'll talk to you after class. And stop writing me! I was looking forward to this class._

Sango read the note and laughed to herself, stuffing the note away in her pocket.

Kagome tried to relax the rest of the class, but at one point she glanced at Inuyasha and caught him in time to see his eyes flicker away from her and back at the teacher. He couldn't help periodically looking at her. He slouched in his seat, resting his head on his left hand while he looked off toward the right, watching the teacher, but being able to easily flicker his eyes over to Kagome to see what she was doing. Almost every time he looked at her, she was either looking at him, or staring down at her lap, with a dark shade of pink staining her lovely face.

 _'What is she so nervous about?'_ he asked himself at one point as he watched her nervously drum her fingertips on her desk through the corner of his eye. ' _Must be really shy.'_ he concluded and ran a hand through his hair, trying to brush it off the side of his face to get a better look at her. But it was difficult, and seeing as their eyes kept locking, he guessed that she knew he was watching her and that he wasn't being as discreet as he thought he was. He cracked his neck and sat up straight, deciding to leave her alone. If she was so shy that she couldn't say hi to him when Sango introduced them, he doubted constantly watching her would make her any more comfortable.

At one point in the class, the teacher had decided to pass out a sheet that explained how the assignments would be graded. Each week, the students were given a writing prompt that had to be handed in by Friday. The sheet detailed the first prompt, and the percentage of tests, quizzes, homework and classwork that would make up their final grade.

The students in the first seats were to pass the sheets back in the row, and when Inuyasha passed a sheet to Sango, his eyes focused on Kagome again. She was staring straight ahead, waiting for the girl in front of her to hand her the paper. Her hair shifted, exposing the white column of her slender neck and jawline. He hurriedly looked away and went to read the prompt to take his mind off the girl.

 _You are a guest speaker at an elementary school to address a class of third graders. What would you talk to them about, and why?_

Inuyasha tried not to grimace. ' _Global warming? Inflation? What would I have to say to a bunch of little kids?'_ He folded his paper and placed it in his folder. The teacher finished with her introduction for the day and encouraged the class to use their study period to type their prompts. All prompts had to be typed; no hand written assignments would be accepted. If someone happened to not have the means to a printer, the teacher wrote her email address on the dry erase board.

There were a couple minutes to spare before 5th period, and Inuyasha turned to Sango again. He glanced at Kagome as briefly as possible and saw her writing in her notebook. He guessed she was starting a rough draft of her prompt, as she looked thoroughly absorbed.

"So what are you gonna write your prompt about?" Sango asked as he faced her. Inuyasha shrugged.

"I'm not too crazy about this prompt. I'm honestly kinda stumped. The hell am I gonna talk to a bunch of little kids about?"

"There's a ton of stuff you can talk to kids about. Just keep it generic and _appropriate_." she laughed. "I know that's not your thing, but it's literally little kid stuff."

"So... no partying in the woods. Got it." he scoffed and Sango rolled her eyes.

"You can take the _don't do drugs_ and _stay in school_ route."

"Actually yeah. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're an idiot?"

He ignored her. "Can you do me a favor?" he asked, lowering his voice as he glanced at Kagome again. She was still writing in her notebook and he looked back at Sango as she raised a brow at him. "I need to go to the guidance office to request a change on my schedule. I don't know who else I'll see from our table before lunch, but save me a seat?"

"Sure." Sango frowned. "Why do you wanna change your schedule?"

"I'm supposed to have Business Math on my schedule but these fucktards gave me Wood Shop instead. My homeroom teacher said if we had a conflict with our schedule, to go to the guidance office during the period of conflict, which is next period. But I don't know how long it'll take so I may be a bit late to lunch. Just save me a seat before Kouga decides to let one of his hussies sit at the table."

"Sure." Sango said. "Why business math? Don't tell me you went back on Pre-Cal."

"I didn't. I chose to take business math as a third elective, seeing as it teaches math that I'll actually get to use in life," he rolled his eyes. "I don't recall a moment in my life where I had to know how to graph a parabola."

"The system is corrupted. But you're lucky you only got stuck with Elementary Analysis. Kagome and I have Calculus." Kagome's head snapped up at the sound of her name and smiled sheepishly as Inuyasha and Sango turned to her.

Inuyasha whistled low. "Have fun with that. Though I don't think it'll be that bad. I didn't think Trig was as bad as everyone made it out to be. I mean, it was hard but at least I passed."

Kagome snorted before she could stop herself and Inuyasha looked at her again, and she turned back to her notebook in embarrassment. She didn't mean it to be rude, but she had learned very advanced courses in New York seeing as she went to a private school and was home schooled the majority of her life. She received all the attention she needed when it came to learning and was extremely advanced. She was offered an Advanced Placement Biology class, but turned it down. Taking Senior classes meant she was less likely to have classes with Sango, and she didn't want that.

"Do you disagree, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked her, and the tone of his voice sounded like he was challenging her. Kagome looked him dead in the eye and shrugged, pursing her lips. Sango's eyes flickered between the two, becoming highly amused. If she wasn't mistaken, they were goading each other. Inuyasha was trying to get Kagome to verbally communicate, and Kagome was teasing him by batting her lashes and shrugging him off.

Inuyasha's lips turned up in the smallest hint of a smirk, but he masked his amusement again. "So how did _you_ fare in Trig then?"

Kagome took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. Her heart was fluttering like crazy and she hoped her physical reaction to this boy wasn't obvious to him. She leaned forward and in the smallest voice she could use without it being a whisper, she spoke to him for the first time.

"Triangles don't intimidate me in the least, Inuyasha."

He stared at her, his face falling. She had a soft, almost childlike voice. Yet it was a deeper pitch, making her sound older than someone in her mid teens. She had a very attractive voice. And with that statement, the bell rang and she turned away from him again, packing up her notebook and shoving it into her bag before standing. Inuyasha and Sango stood in turn and Sango was trying her best to hide a smile. If she knew Kagome like she thought she knew Kagome, she'd say her friend was flirting with Inuyasha. And Inuyasha, who Sango knew to be typically cocky and arrogant, was struck dumb by her rebuttal and had nothing to say in response.

' _Interesting.'_ she thought as Kagome scooted down the aisle and waited for Sango. Inuyasha brushed passed her, after reminding Sango to save him a seat at the lunch table. Kagome and Sango exited the room in time to catch Inuyasha looking at Kagome over his shoulder before he went downstairs and disappeared from view.

* * *

Kagome exited her Home Ec. Class and went to her locker to drop off the textbooks she'd received that morning. Sango promised to meet her there so that they could walk to the cafeteria together. She did her combination and placed her books neatly in her locker, making a mental note to buy book socks. She closed her locker right when Sango bounded up to her and the two girls chatted excitedly as they made their way to the cafeteria and stood in one of the lines.

Kagome was impressed with the layout of the lunch room. It was massive, to say the least, with large round tables in the school colors–red, gold and black–dotting the room. Each table appeared to seat about 8 people. There were multiple concession stands with different food choices. One for pizza, one for burgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, and chicken sandwiches, one for pasta, a deli for custom wraps and subs, and a miscellaneous line that served something different every day.

Sango decided on a buffalo chicken wrap with fries and Kagome agreed. She didn't really care what she ate, and she wanted to stick to Sango like glue with so many people around. Kagome decided on an Italian wrap with onion rings and Sango piled up all of their food onto one tray before moving down to the drinks. Kagome raised a brow.

"Milk?" she asked incredulously and Sango grinned. Sango chose a chocolate milk and paid for their food.

"They have vending machines with more choices," she explained and led Kagome over to the beverage vending machine.

"We live in a world where milk and soda are cheaper than a bottle of water." Sango said as Kagome decided on a Minute Maid orange juice and they went in search of a table.

"Sango!" someone called and they turned to see a girl with dyed red hair waving them over and Sango gestured for Kagome to follow. Kagome assumed this was Ayame by the red hair. She and Sango excitedly greeted each other and they sat down. Miroku was also at the table, on the other side of Sango. Kagome and Ayame were to her right.

"Ayame, this is my old friend, Kagome." Sango introduced. Ayame gave Kagome a warm smile as she greeted her, and Kagome noted that she had beautiful green eyes and gauged ears.

"Hi," Kagome said mildly.

"Look at you! You're so little! You're probably smaller than Rin." she giggled and Kagome blushed. She knew she didn't mean it unkindly and found herself giggling, too.

"I think she's definitely smaller than Rin." Miroku grinned at Kagome and Sango nodded in agreement.

"How tall are you?" Ayame asked and Kagome blushed deeper.

"Five feet." she said. Everyone laughed in unison and Kagome was embarrassed to be the center of attention so quickly.

"Oh my God, Ayame, your ears!" someone squealed. Kagome looked up to see a relatively short black haired girl with dark brown eyes and a wide grin plastered across her face. She was followed by a taller, older Inuyasha. ' _They must be Rin and Sesshomaru,_ ' she thought. The resemblance between Inuyasha and his brother was incredible. They both had the same long silky black hair and golden eyes, however Sesshomaru's features were slimmer and more angular, as he was a bit older than his brother. Ayame grinned at them.

"Zero, zero," she said. "I'm not gonna go any bigger than this though."

"I just got mine double pierced," Rin said as she pushed her hair back to show that she had two studs in each ear.

"Cute." Sango commented.

"Did somebody ask for me?" a loud, deep voice boomed over all the other voices in the cafe and Kagome turned around to see a tall, bulky, dark haired boy with his black hair tied back in a messy ponytail.

"Nobody thinks you're cute, you ass." Sesshomaru pulled out the chair for Rin before she sat down next to him.

"Ayame certainly does." he retorted and Ayame giggled.

"Don't get too cocky." She winked at him as he set his tray and his books down. Everyone kinda just threw their books and stuff in the center of the large table. Kagome had her bag at her feet, with one of the straps around her legs so she wouldn't lose it.

"So what the fuck has everyone been up to?" the black haired boy continued. "You lose your virginity yet, Miroku?"

Sango snorted and kicked Miroku under the table as Miroku slumped his shoulders.

"Unfortunately, no." he sighed.

Sango raised a brow. "What do you mean unfortunately?" she demanded and Miroku looked at her like she grew another head.

"Have you _seen_ your body?" he asked incredulously and Sango mushed his face with her hands as everyone laughed. "Looks like the only ones getting any action around here are Rin and Sesshomaru."

Rin smirked while Sesshomaru shot Miroku a knowing look.

"And me," the loud boy boasted.

"You'd never betray me, would you Sweetums?" Ayame teased as he winked at her.

"Kouga likes to think he's getting action." Inuyasha spoke up as he approached the table. "My toilet gets more ass than you do." Kouga raised a brow.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded as Inuyasha set his tray on the table, taking the last available seat. The round table was now complete, with Kagome and Sango to her left, followed by Miroku, then Kouga, Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Rin and Ayame before it went back to Kagome. Inuyasha sat directly across from Kagome, which made her nervous as she watched him shrug off his backpack.

"Guidance office. They had me in Wood Shop for fifth period when it was supposed to be Business Math," he said as he placed his revised schedule on the table for everyone to examine. Kagome's heart sunk when she saw that she shared her last two periods with him, Gym and Spare. Inuyasha pulled out his chair and sat down.

" _Come on iiiinnn and pull yourself up a chair,"_ Kouga began to sing to Inuyasha, who shot him a dirty look as he scooted his chair closer to the table. " _Let the fun begin, it's time to lay down your haaair. Inu's so excited because all his friends are invite to go wackyyyy, in the dangalang playhouuusee."_

"What in the everlasting shit is wrong with you?" Inuyasha raised a brow at him and Kouga laughed loudly, throwing his head back and exposing his wolfish teeth. Everyone joined in except Inuyasha, who looked blatantly annoyed. Even Kagome was giggling. Kouga's dark eyes zeroed in on Kagome and she felt herself shrink under his gaze and she slumped into her seat.

"Well well well," he rubbed his chin. "Who's this little cutie pie?" he said and Kagome blushed like a tomato as everyone turned their attention to her again. She lifted her hand to wave weakly to everyone.

"My good friend, Kagome," Sango answered. "She just moved here from New York City."

Everyone's expressions registered shock and Kagome wanted to die there. She wasn't used to being put in the spotlight like this.

"America?" Ayame pondered. "Tell me, are there really a lot of black people there?"

Kagome paused before she busted out laughing a genuine, heartfelt laugh and Sango joined in, followed by Rin and Miroku. Ayame glanced around and wondered what was so funny.

"Yes. There are a lot of black people in America." she said and Ayame's eyes glistened.

"I've never met a black person before. I hear they have thick, curly hair. Like a sheep."

Kagome laughed again. She could tell she and Ayame were going to get along very well. She was so naive and inquisitive, like a child. Kagome found it to be cute and idly wondered why Kouga didn't want to date her. She seemed like a lovely person. "Well... I've never actually went up to an African American and touched their hair, but they do tend to have thicker, curlier hair."

"You speak Japanese really well for an American." Rin smiled.

"Actually, I grew up here. I moved to America when I was 7 because–" she stopped, not wanting to go too far into the story. "My mother was offered a good job there." she quickly recovered. "I just moved back earlier this week."

"What does your mother do?" Rin asked.

"She's a social worker."

"How ironic." She smiled sweetly at Kagome. "Your mother is a social worker, yet you seem to be very shy."

"You hit the nail right on the head, Rin." Sango said and smirked at Kagome, who blushed. It was getting difficult to ignore everyone staring at her, especially Inuyasha, who reguarded her seemingly more intently than anyone else at the table.

"So have you decided on any clubs to join, Kagome?" Rin continued to interrogate her. "I don't know what kinds of things American youths like to do, but I'd recommend the spirit club."

Kouga rolled his eyes. "Oh here you go. Another year of free varsity football games and joyrides with a bunch of horny high school kids on a disgusting school bus."

Ayame grinned. "Duh, why else would people join the spirit club?"

"You better not be joyriding with any horny high school kids except me," Sesshomaru glared at Rin and she beamed at him.

"I'm thinking about joining the debate team for a club and maybe girls' basketball for a sport?" Sango said. "If I don't make the team I guess I can always do track and field again."

"I doubt you wouldn't make the team. You're the most athletic person I know."

"Thank you, Miroku." Sango smiled at her boyfriend.

"And I love going to your events to watch that sexy ass," he snickered and she slapped his shoulder.

"Ex _cuse_ me!" Kouga roared. "I'm the most athletic person at this table."

"Bullshit." Inuyasha interjected. "You chickened out on varsity football tryouts because you stepped into a bucket and _hurt_ yourself."

"I twisted my ankle!"

"Yeah– _six weeks_ before the tryouts."

"Oh eat a bag of dicks, Inuyasha. You made the team and decided to quit!"

"Yeah, because I had a job and the practices and game schedule conflicted with my work! Having an income is important when you have a car, but you wouldn't know what it's like to make payments because your mom babies you."

"Your mom babies me too. _Bam_!" he slapped the table and Inuyasha gave him a dirty look.

"You're such a child, Kouga." Sesshomaru rolled his eyes.

"We'll see who's more athletic 7th period. I'll trash you in dodge ball." Kouga said to Inuyasha who snorted.

"If Mr. Rasoku let's us actually do anything today."

"Well whatever he has set up, I can beat you at it."

"As if you could beat me. You can't even beat your own dick."

"You'll eat those words, just watch."

"Wait, you guys have Gym 7th period?" Sango asked. Inuyasha and Kouga nodded. "Awesome! So do me and Kagome. What do you say we make it interesting and have a little two on two?" She looked at Kagome and her eyes widened.

"Playing with or against them?" Kagome asked quietly.

"They get to pick one of us as a teammate." she explained.

"I call Sango!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Not to be mean, Doll Face, but I know Sango is a beast on the court." Kouga said to Kagome. "But don't worry, I'm a beast in the sheets and I'll make it up to you." He winked and Kagome blushed.

"Well since you both want me to be on your team, I suppose it's up to me to choose who I wanna play with... _S_ _o..."_ Sango's eyes flickered between Inuyasha and Kouga. "I pick... Inuyasha."

Inuyasha snickered and Kouga's face turned red. "Why?" he exclaimed.

"Because you're an asshole." Sango smiled pleasantly.

"But he is, too!"

"Well you're a bigger asshole." Rin said impatiently and the whole table erupted into laughter. Kouga huffed and folded his arms across his chest.

"Fine, I get the pip squeak. You better have game, little girl. I don't take kindly to losing."

Kagome raised a brow and Sango glared at Kouga. "Kouga, I swear to God if you harass one hair on her little head, I will shove my foot so far up your ass your dead father will feel it."

Miroku's eyes widened. "Well jeez. That was brutal." Sango snorted.

"Fuck him."

"Like I care. I didn't even know my father." Kouga muttered.

Their chatter continued and Kagome had to admit, she was very highly amused by each of Sango's friends, even Kouga. Especially Kouga. While Kouga and Inuyasha argued over who was better at whatever, Ayame and Rin engaged Kagome in conversation, and Kagome found out that Ayame was in her Biology class. They decided to sit next to each other anymore as it was one of the classes Kagome had without Sango.

Ayame lived with her mom and grandfather, and had 3 Siberian Huskies. Kagome was happy they had so much in common, as she also lived with her mother and granddad, and had a pet. Her cat, Buyo. Rin didn't have any classes with Kagome, to her disappointment, as she was advanced and was taking all Senior classes. Kagome concluded that Rin being in higher level classes is what brought her to Sesshomaru, as she revealed they started dating late in her freshman year.

Throughout her conversation with the girls, she couldn't help but be hyper aware of Inuyasha. Each time his eyes flickered in her direction, she felt herself turn pink in embarrassment. And Kouga bluntly expressing his physical attraction to her–especially in front of Ayame, who everyone knew liked him for whatever reason–wasn't helping with her shyness, either. She found herself occasionally glancing at him in turn, finally admitting to herself that he was physically very attractive.

At one point during the the conversation, their eyes met and locked for a couple seconds. Kagome cleared her throat and looked away to murmur something to Rin. But when she glanced back at him, he was still staring at her with a brow raised. It wasn't the challenging look he'd given her in their writing class. He looked merely curious now, as everyone around the table occasionally asked her something about her life in America and she spoke so quietly everyone had to lean in to hear her.

Finally, the bell rang and everyone got up from the table to dump their lunch trays away and shuffle to the next class. Sango, Miroku and Kagome made their way to Language Arts, and Kagome had to admit that she was sad to leave the cafeteria. Her lunch was delicious, and Sango's friends were interesting, hilarious, and kind to her, much to her relief. She'd successfully sat with six strangers and made conversation, and new friends of her own. Her thoughts flickered briefly to the boy, Akitoki, form her homeroom. If he was going to reach out and be friendly with her, she'd be friendly in return. Actually, everyone she spoke to was friendly to her. She was sure even Kouga had taken a liking to her despite him speaking so crudely to her. He obviously behaved that way with everyone.

The only person who seemed to not like her was the girl from her homeroom, Kikyo.

Language Arts was a particularly dull class, to Kagome's disappointment. She decided to go to the guidance office herself to see if there was an alternative. After all, she already had her two necessary language credits to graduate. After her teacher's introduction, she asked to leave for the office, and Sango accompanied her.

There was a long line in the guidance office and Kagome sighed impatiently.

"So how come you don't wanna take the class?" Sango asked her.

"I don't think that class can teach me anything I don't already know." she said dully and Sango shrugged. When it was finally Kagome's turn, she was called into a small cubicle in the corner or the large room and saw a middle aged woman at a computer.

"Hello. How may I assist you?" she asked. Kagome briefly read the name plaque on her desk: Ms. Kaede.

"I was wondering if you had openings for other electives for this period." Kagome said. She was getting better at projecting her voice to a slightly louder pitch without it trembling.

"Is there a problem with your schedule, dear?"

"No, I was just wondering if there's anything else. I don't think the Language Arts course is challenging enough for me."

She watched the old woman slip on her glasses and type something into her computer, clicking her mouse now and then. She finally looked up at Kagome. "There are openings for other alternatives during this period, but they're mostly underclass electives."

"There are no Junior or Senior classes?" she pressed urgently, and Sango was impressed with Kagome's new ability to converse with strangers without cracking under the strain.

"There's a Senior class. Psychology." she said. "But you're a Junior, so I don't think you should jump right into a new subject without completing the first few courses. And I'm sorry, but all students are required to take Language Arts throughout all years of high school."

"Um... that's okay." Kagome said in a haste. "I'll just stay in this class then. Thanks for your help." She turned before the guidance counselor could react and stormed out of the office. Sango raised a brow and had to jog to keep up with Kagome.

"Hey, hey!" she grabbed Kagome's shoulder. "Slow down! What's with you?"

Kagome stopped and turned to look at her. "I didn't think the Language Arts class would be so boring, but I'd rather stick with that than a class that reminds me of what a freak I am."

"A freak?" Sango's eyebrows shot up and Kagome nodded.

"All those years of having to see psychologists and undergoing all kinds of therapy... Psychology is the last class I wanna take."

"Oh." Sango said as she frowned. "Well I understand in that aspect, but don't you _ever_ refer to yourself as a freak or I will be extremely pissed off. I know what you've gone through wasn't easy, Kagome, and I know that I'll never understand the little things you struggle with daily but after seeing how you sat with everyone and conversed and became a part of the clique so easily, I'm so proud of you. I honestly didn't know you had it in you."

Kagome was taken aback and she smiled fondly at her friend. She didn't know what to say, but she knew Sango was right. She had made six new friends in one day and even had the courage to speak to her teacher to ask for permission to leave the class. She'd even almost asked to switch out of a class that two of her friends were in. She honestly didn't believe she was capable, either.

"We should get back to class," was all she could respond with as Sango gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Might as well head to the gym. Class is almost over. Remember, you're on Kouga's team."

' _Drat!'_ Kagome thought. She'd forgotten all about Inuyasha and Kouga's quarrel over _who-could-beat-who-at-whatever-was-going-on-in-gym-today._ And disappointingly, she was on Kouga's team. Not that she disliked Kouga, but she'd rather play on Sango's team. As they walked to the gym, she scolded herself, reminding herself that Sango couldn't hold her hand wherever they went. Besides, regardless of whose team she was on, she'd have a good view of Inuyasha face-to-face if he were to be opposing her. And she could finally try to read his face and hopefully get a better understanding of why he stared at her so much.

They entered the massive gym and took a seat on the bleachers. There were two sets of bleachers that ran along the entire length of the gym wall on both sides, as the school held varsity wrestling and basketball there. There were 2 gym classes to a gym at one time, and according to Sango, the two classes often went against each other in whatever activity they were doing. It didn't look like anyone was doing anything in particular, as some students were walking the gym perimeter, and otheres were sitting in the bleachers conversing like Kagome and Sango. They noticed with interest, however, that there was a volleyball net set up in the middle of the gym and a couple students were playing badminton.

Inuyasha and Kouga entered the gym and sat with the girls. They were chatting about something that Kagome tuned out as she watched the students with their rackets. However she could feel Inuyasha watching her.

The gym teacher eventually called his class to line up as the other teacher did the other class opposite the of them. Mr. Rasoku was a very heavyset man, and evidently strict, as he instructed his class with military commands like "attention" and "at ease" poses. He was the first and only teacher to line up the class in alphabetical order. Kagome was a couple of students away from Sango, with Kouga standing right before her. She learned his last name was Lin. Inuyasha stood toward the end of the class, his last name being Takahashi. Mr. Rasoku embarrassed Kagome by referring to her as "short stuff" and she blushed strongly, as the whole class leaned out to see how small she was. She caught Sango and Kouga grinning at her. The bastards.

As expected, it was a free day, and Mr. Rasuko demanded that everyone show up dressed in athletic attire starting the very next day, or they would get a zero for the day and wouldn't be allowed to participate.

' _Show up and dress up. Another easy A.'_ Kagome thought as she followed Inuyasha and Sango over to the net, and was given a racket. She tied her hair back into a sloppy ponytail, revealing her widow's peak. Sango set her blazer on the bleachers and played in her button up.

"Have you ever played badminton before?" Kouga asked her and she shook her head. He grinned widely. "Don't worry, babe. It's easy. Just hit the birdie over the net if it comes to you. I got you covered."

It was basically two against one as Sango and Inuyasha expertly navigated around their side of the net, smacking the birdie to Kagome's side. She didn't even try to hit it as Kouga usually appeared out of thin air and smacked it back over the net. At one point, Inuyasha smacked the birdie in Kagome's direction, and she flinched as Kouga swung his racket in front of her, _just_ missing her face. The birdie went for Sango and she missed.

Kagome and Kouga: 1  
Sango and Inuyasha: 0

"Not bad, but next time, maybe try to hit the birdie." Kouga scoffed playfully and Kagome rolled her eyes at him.

Inuyasha was watching her intently. He was glad to finally have an opportunity to study her. Her stance said a lot about her. The way she held her racket with both hands and clutched it to her chest, trying to protect herself. She hardly reacted to the birdie when it came close to her. She was shy, yes, but not one to back down from a challenge, even if it was something she'd never done before.

And he had to admit, she was a beauty. With her long hair tied back, he could see her whole face to the hollow at the base of her throat. She was pale and slim, with big eyes, a small nose, and a lovely curve in her full lips. He watched her try to swing at the birdie and she just barely hit it, as it stuck in the net. Kouga and Sango laughed as she untangled it from the net and tried to serve it, but missed and sighed as she stared at it on the ground, her long lashes fluttering over her rosy cheeks.

Kouga picked it up and winked at her. "Don't sweat it, Pip Squeak. It's your first time so I'll go easy on you." He made that sentence sound dirty. Kagome squeaked and jumped a foot in the air as he unexpectantly swatted her bum with his racket. Inuyasha, Sango and a few bystanders burst into laughter as Kagome gawked at Kouga incredulously.

The game ended with Sango and Inuyasha getting in a few cheap points by spiking in the last few minutes of class. Final score:

Inuyasha and Sango: 4

Kouga and Kagome: 2

"Not bad for your first game, Kagome. You hit one, at least." Sango teased and Kouga guffawed loudly.

"Don't lie to her, Sango. She sucks and you know it." Kagome glared at Kouga and he laughed at her again. "Don't worry, you're really cute so I guess that makes up for it."

"Gee, thanks." she said.

"Where are you guys headed next?" Inuyasha asked.

"Spare." Sango said. "I'm just gonna go home."

"Home?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha looked at her.

"Yeah, Juniors and Seniors get spare first or last period so they can come in late or go home early." he explained.

Kagome grinned. "Oh, I didn't know that. That's cool."

"You okay with going home?" Sango asked her. Kagome nodded.

"Oh, before we leave, I have to see about getting my own student metrocard. I don't wanna keep using yours."

"Well I have spare first period so I guess I'm outta the equation." Kouga rolled his eyes. Everyone ignored him as Inuyasha stared at Kagome.

"I can drive you guys home, if you want." he said, but he was only looking at Kagome and she flushed.

"Um, I appreciate it. But I'd have to get a metrocard regardless..."

"I think you have to check with the secretary in the main office about a student metrocard. Just remember, they charge a fee after 9pm." Inuyasha told her.

"What on earth would I be doing on a train past 9pm?" Kagome giggled. His lips twitched into a smile.

"Drop me off at Kagome's, too." Sango said as she pulled her blazer back on. Inuyasha raised a brow at her.

"You staying over again?" Kagome asked, and Sango nodded. "Okay."

The bell rang and Kagome and Sango followed Inuyasha out into the student parking lot as Kouga went to his final class. Inuyasha unlocked a red Kia Optima K900 and the girls got in. Kagome chose to sit in the back, as Sango was more acquainted with Inuyasha than she was. They conversed on the way home while Kagome remained quiet and stared out the window. Unknown to her, Inuyasha kept glancing back at her through the rear view mirror.

Sango instructed Inuyasha to the shrine and he parked in front of the steps. He bid the girls a farewell as they got out of the car and watched them climb the long staircase. Before he realized it, he'd rolled down the window.

"Kagome."

She turned around when she heard Inuyasha call her name. He was leaning toward the passenger door, staring up at her. "Yes?" she called out to him.

He gave her a small smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you," he said.

Before she could reply, he sped off.

 **Please review! c:**


	4. The Project

**Okay so after a lot of speculation, I've decided to bump up the rating on this story. The dialogue isn't fit for those under 17. Rated M for language.**

* * *

"So, how was school, Kagome?" Karori asked as she prepared dinner. Sango set the table with place mats and plates as Kagome helped her mother cut the potatoes. Karori was making one of Kagome and Souta's favorites: baked potato wedges and onions over smoked salmon with a side of asparagus. Sango had decided to stay another night and return home the next day after school.

"It was good," Kagome smiled. "I actually talked to a lot of people today." she said proudly as he mother raised her brows and grinned.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Sango chipped in. "She sat with me and my friends at my lunch table and everyone loved her. And they kept teasing her for being so small." she giggled and Kagome flushed at the memory.

"You know you're short when a bunch of Asian kids make fun of you for being short." Souta laughed and Kagome stuck her tongue out at him.

"Shut up. At least I'm cute."

"Cute? Maybe." Souta tilted his head back. "But do you have _a cleft chin?_ "

"What's so great about a cleft chin?" Karori gave her son a weird look.

"It's sexy. Wait'll my jaw starts to look big and manly."

"Yeah Souta, you're right on your way to being a stud." Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Tell me about your new friends." Karori smiled.

Kagome spoke in a rush. "Well there's Sango's boyfriend who's in two of my classes and a girl Ayame who's in my Biology class and Inuyasha is in three or four of my classes and his brother is a senior and his girlfriend is super nice and small and cute like me and Kouga is loud and cocky but he's nice to me too–" she stopped to take a deep breath. "And did I mention that Sango and I have almost all classes together?"

"Yes. Four times now." Souta grumped.

"And Ayame is in one of the classes I don't have with Sango. She's a very sweet girl. And very naive."

"I had a pretty good feeling you and Ayame would get along. It's honestly hard not to." Sango said. "In our last year of middle school, she got voted the Most Outgoing Girl. Good to know she's your lab partner this year because that girl isn't afraid of anything."

"You should invite your friends over some time so we can meet them." Karori said. "I'll even make a nice big dinner for them."

"Mama, you really don't have to–"

"I don't want _any_ fresh young high school boys under this roof!" Kagome's grandfather piped in. He was in the next room watching some old people gaming show on TV and entered the kitchen with his cane.

"You don't have to worry about that, _Jiji_." Sango smiled. "My friends aren't like that. And most of the boys in my squad are taken anyway."

" _And_ I'm a very self respecting young lady who's in no hurry to open her legs, let alone find a boyfriend right now." Kagome scoffed, insulted. She raised a brow at her grandfather who _hmphed_ and turned away.

"I'm so proud of you, Kagome," her mother said. "You seem so excited and you're making friends at a public high school. And on your first day! How did my little _Kame_ grow up so fast?" Kagome blushed, hearing her childhood nickname her mother had given her. Kame–turtle–was something she was called by her parents growing up because she was so shy and never came out of her shell. She briefly swelled with emotion, wishing her father was alive to see this day. He'd be so proud to hear she transferred to a pubic school and made friends.

"Mama," she whined in embarrassment as Sango and Souta laughed.

Sango ate dinner with Kagome's family, amused at how they bickered and conversed about random things. She compared the way Kagome interacted with her family to the way she interacted at school. With their friends, she was quiet and shy and spoke only if someone spoke directly to her. And little things that people would say to her–mostly Kouga–would trigger her to become flustered. Whereas with her family, she spoke loudly and freely and got snobby with her bother and grandfather when they made weird comments.

That night after Kagome and Sango had their showers, they sat up in her room, getting ready for school the next day. Sango had one more change of clothes for school–but she didn't bring anything to change into for gym. Kagome lent Sango some sweatpants and a T-shirt for gym and decided on form fitting dark gray sweat pants and a tight black t-shirt with a jersey number 6 on the chest and back for herself.

Kagome sat at the foot of her bed with Sango's shoulders between her legs, straightening her hair. The girls were staying up a little later as they planned on going to school at normal time the next day. They talked for a while about random things while Sango painted her fingernails. It always amused Kagome that, despite Sango being a great athlete and came off as pretty tomboyish, she dressed and acted a lot girlier than Kagome did.

"Why do you bother doing your hair when you always throw it up into a ponytail?" Kagome asked as Sango started a second coat of pink nail polish.

"I don't really know," she blew her nails. "To show off my long neck?"

Kagome giggled.

"I wish I had a widow's peak like you, Kagome. It'd complement my big forehead."

"You do not have a big forehead." Kagome scorned. "Turn to the left."

Sango readjusted herself between Kagome's legs. "So you think Kouga really likes you?"

"God I hope not. And not only for Ayame's sake." she giggled. Talking about boys from school with her best friend was surreal to her. But at the same time it was so... normal. "He's even more of a pervert than Miroku is. But at least Miroku is only a pervert to you."

"I'd kick his ass otherwise."

"I don't really know what Ayame sees in Kouga but I can tell she _really_ likes him. It amazes me that she's so open about it even though he constantly shoots her down."

"I told you that girl isn't afraid of anything. She may be a bit ditzy but she'll be the last one to back down from a challenge. I think that's how she sees Kouga."

"As a challenge?" Kagome raised a brow. Sango nodded.

"Yeah. She and Kouga were that on again off again couple in middle school. Mostly because Kouga is known to flirt with everyone, but as far as I know, they've been having casual sex since freshman year."

Kagome's hand froze on the straightener.

"Casual sex...?" she asked.

"It's when you're not an established couple but you have sex on a regular basis."

"I know what casual sex is! But why would she torture herself like that? She's sleeping with someone who she has strong feelings for but he doesn't want commitment."

"Trust me, Rin and I have had many talks with her about it but she can't help herself. She says she's okay with him being the way he is because honestly, no one else would ever _want_ to bang an asshole like him." Sango grinned. "And she's not really too attached to him. I'm sure if he would serious up she'd date him again but otherwise he's just really amazing in bed apparently."

Kagome raised a brow. "And how is Miroku in bed...?"

"We never got there yet, dammit! No one believes me!"

"I'm just kidding, Sango, I believe you. Knowing you, you'd call me immediately after orgasm and tell me how it went. Either that or I'd be on the phone with you while you describe every single second to me."

The girls laughed and Kagome put her straightening iron away and climbed into bed. Sango crawled in next to her. They never thought it to be weird to share a bed since they've been doing it since they were babies and they freely undressed around each other. Plus, Kagome's full sized bed had plenty of room for the two girls. Sango turned off Kagome's lamp while Kagome turned her back to face the wall.

It was quiet for a while.

"Hey, Kagome?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think of Inuyasha?"

Kagome's body stiffened as her eyes opened and she felt a blush creep across her face.

"I knew it!" she felt Sango sit up in the darkness and the light of the lamp suddenly filled the room. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!"

"What?" Kagome turned to raise a brow at her.

"You like him."

"No, I don't."

"You can lie to a monkey's uncle, but you can't lie to me. Spill it, Kagome. Oh my God–no wonder you kept blushing and squirming around in creative writing today when I introduced you guys! That's probably why you got all awkward and nervous when you guys bumped into each other in Biology this morning!"

"Shh! My grandfather is sleeping!" Kagome scolded.

"Admit it, Kagome." Sango narrowed her eyes. Kagome turned back to face the wall again.

"You're blushing, Kagome." she teased.

"Feh! I think he's cute but that doesn't mean I like him!"

"Well I think he likes you..." Sango lowered herself on the back and turned her back on Kagome. After a beat, she felt her friend shift her he weight as she turned to face Sango again.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well he kept staring at you in Creative Writing after your little note mishap," Sango tried not to laugh at the memory. "Even toward the end of class when we were talking, he kept glancing at you. And he turned around to look at you one last time before fifth period. And did you notice that during lunch he didn't say anything to you? He kind just kept staring at you. And then in gym his was _all over_ you."

Kagome was quiet and Sango bit her lip waiting for her friend to crack. She felt Kagome turn towards the wall again.

"I don't care." she said dismissively and Sango giggled.

"You keep lying to yourself and see where that gets you in life."

"Goodnight, Sango."

"You're a little bitch." Sango laughed and Kagome rolled her eyes but didn't respond. "Yeah yeah, go to sleep. Don't worry, you'll see Inuyasha tomorrow." she teased before she rolled over and flicked the lamp off again. Kagome snorted and pulled the covers higher over her body, trying to get warm and fall asleep and ignore her friend's teasing.

Although she honestly _was_ looking forward to seeing Inuyasha again.

* * *

Kagome spent homeroom writing her rough draft for her prompt. Miroku had first period study, so he wasn't there to accompany her. It was much easier to fall into the pattern though, seeing as she now had a better idea of what to expect in her school and she knew her way around and was becoming more comfortable with speaking to people. The boy Hojo tried talking to her again, and Kagome responded to him at first, but was rudely interrupted by the girl Kikyo Hiromi as she starting talking to him.

Kagome didn't really care. She'd seen enough movies and TV shows that depicted high school girls as being snobby or stuck up, and it was something Kagome experienced firsthand when she was in a private school. She knew that some girls were just really rude and arrogant for no good reason. She would not stoop to the girl's level of pettiness.

Their homeroom teacher announced that Juniors and Seniors were going to have an assembly during the last period, and weren't allowed to go home even if they had a study until the assembly was over. Kagome was relieved, as she knew she'd have Sango and Inuyasha to sit next to. She really hoped she wouldn't tease her about the Inuyasha thing right in front of Inuyasha himself.

After her first period with Sango–which irritated her as Sango continued to tease her about Inuyasha–she sat with Ayame at a table for two in her Biology class. She'd briefly seen Inuyasha in the hallway when she walked into the class, but he was walking away from her. She knew it was him by how tall he was, and his long black hair. Kagome was excited to have class with Ayame; she could really see the two becoming quite close in the future. She was annoyed to learn that Ayame was only one letter away from being in her homeroom. Her last name was Kurokawa. They didn't have much time to talk to each other as the teacher was ready to actually start with lessons today. They sat in the darkened room as the teacher turned on the Smartscreen for them to copy notes.

During Calculus, she pleasantly greeted Miroku and Sango and twitched irritably seeing that devilish smirk still plastered across her friend's face.

"Sango I swear to God if you say anything next period..." Kagome didn't finish her threat, hoping to leave the worst to Sango's imagination. Sango only grinned wider.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said innocently. Kagome wanted to kick her friend out of her chair.

The next period, Kagome and Sango made their way to the back, to the same two seats they sat in the day before. Inuyasha soon came in after, taking his usual seat in front of Sango. The teacher went into a lecture about the first novel of the year that they were going to study and an upcoming project. Each student was going to be assigned a random letter and choose a noun that started with the letter, and write an informative essay, short story, or poem about it. She had a small bucket full of letters and came around the room, allowing each student to pick a random letter from the bucket.

"What letter are you hoping to get?" Inuyasha asked the girls and Kagome shrugged; it didn't matter to her as long as she didn't get X. Sango thought for a moment.

"What, are you hoping for an 'I' so you can write about how great you think you are?" she snorted. Inuyasha's nostrils flared.

"Actually I was hoping for 'M' so I can write about my foot up your ass."

"Bite me." she rolled her eyes.

"I can't. Your clingy boyfriend would think things. And you probably taste like cabbage."

"Cabbage? The hell?" She looked at him like he burst into flames.

"I don't like cabbage." he finished and Kagome giggled. Inuyasha turned to her with a small smile.

"Well?"

Kagome shrugged. "I don't really care what I get. I'm sure I'll find something to write about regardless. Hopefully I get 'N' so I can write about New York?"

"Or nipples?" Sango suggested.

"Why the heck would I want to write about nipples?" she gave Sango a funny look as she watched her friends crack up in laughter.

"You can write about your third nipple." Sango said between laughs and Kagome blushed deeply when Inuyasha raised a brow.

"You really have a third nipple?"

"No!" she glared at her friend. "Sango has seen me naked a dozen times. She saw me naked yesterday!"

" _Really_?" he rubbed his chin in amusement.

"Oh my God–it's not what you think!" Kagome huffed in embarrassment as she turned in her seat and decided to ignore her friends. The teacher was close to her anyway. Kagome reached her hand into the little bucket and pulled out the letter 'S'. She immediately thought of multiple different ideas for her letter as the teacher turned to Sango and Inuyasha. Sango pulled out a 'P' and Inuyasha pulled out 'Y'. When the teacher finished making her rounds, she handed out a copy of their first focus novel: McBeth.

They were given a worksheet with questions about the first act. They had till the end of the week to read and finish the paper. Kagome was pleased with the play; she'd already read it and actually enjoyed it. She began filling out the questions. The teacher was filling out passes for students to go to the library to start their prompts or projects. Kagome decided to go so Inuyasha and Sango followed her.

The library was composed of different major areas: the stocks, where they had a large supply of different books, the book room where students could exchange different text books, the sitting area where they had tables for study groups, the focus area where they had single desks with barriers around all sides for private studying, and the computer area where students had access to the internet and typing programs and could print their work to a colored printer.

Inuyasha, Kagome and Sango grabbed a table in the sitting area.

"I got 'P'." Sango said. "I'm thinking about writing about poetry."

"Are you gonna write a poem about poetry? Sounds kinda stupid if you ask me." Inuyasha said.

"Funny that you should mention that because I don't believe I asked you. Maybe I'll write about your unkempt pubes instead."

"You've never seen my pubes."

"Miroku has. Scarred him for life."

He ignored her. "What letter did you get, Kagome?" She held up her little paper that had the letter 'S' on it and slid it over to him. "Jeez, you guys got easy letters. I got stuck with stupid 'Y'."

"You can write about yelling at Kouga," Sango said distractly as she started writing something in her notebook.

"Or your mom's nasty yeast infection." Inuyasha countered and Kagome stifled a laugh. Sango ignored him.

"I think I got my concept down. I'm gonna start typing it. Catch you two on the flipside." She stood and left the table, giving Kagome a knowing smirk that Inuyasha didn't see and headed toward the computer section. The witch had left Kagome alone with him on purpose and Kagome tried not to look sheepish as Inuyasha turned his chair toward her to face her fully. She felt the heat rushing to her face as he looked her in the eye.

"So what are you gonna write about?" he asked her. Kagome shrugged.

"I don't know. There are so many different possibilities. That's what makes it so difficult." She spied a clock and saw that there were only about 5 minutes left of class.

"Well... you used to live in New York City. Maybe write about the subway?"

"It's not a bad idea... but I wanna write about something that nobody would ever think of. Something that'll really _'wow'_ Ms. Yumata."

Inuyasha gave her a small smile. "Well you're small. You can write about being small. Or shy. Or silly." he added as she started giggling. "Let's see... Soap... Soup or salad?"

"Stop." she laughed. "And I'm not small. You're just ridiculously tall."

"I'm 6'3." He gave her a toothy grin. "And you are small. You're shorter than Rin. That girl is 5'2."

"And how would me being small or shy impress the teacher? She can clearly see by looking at me that I'm small."

"Well when I first saw you and knocked you down, I was like ' _wow,_ she's so _small_! I got nervous. I'd never be able to live with myself if I hurt someone so small and helpless like you." he teased.

"Oh shut up." she rolled her eyes. "And besides, it depends on what format I'm gonna write it in. I'm thinking of leaning toward the informative essay to be honest. And taking the poetry route seems kinda cheesy. If I'm gonna write a poem, it's gonna be about something deep and meaningful to me. Not a stupid letter that I happened to pick out of an old hat."

"You take your work pretty seriously, don't you?" he asked her with a straight face. She nodded.

"I feel like combining my personal interests with school work will allow me to expand my horizons and be more passionate about the assignment."

"Expand your horizons?" he smirked. "Funny that you should say that. I like to keep school and personal interests separate."

"And that's why you're stumped on what to write about." she snorted. "You should incorporate things you feel passionately about into your work. You'll have fun with it and be much happier with it."

"I can't think of anything that starts with Y that I feel passionate about." he frowned and eyed her as she twirled a stray piece of hair from her ponytail.

"Yogurt?" she blurted out with a small smile and he chuckled.

"Yeah, yogurt is so _passionate._ "

She held her hands up in defense. "Hey, I'm just trying to help!" she giggled. "Anyway, it's not my letter so I really don't even have to give a damn about your project." she raised a brow and gave him a challenging look and he slowly grinned, exposing his rather sharp canines.

"Fine. Be that way. I think I've just decided what to write about anyway. I'll probably just do an informative essay. I'm not really creative enough to write a short story."

The bell rang, and they both gathered their things and stood to leave the library. Kagome noticed Sango eyeing them with a curious look as she walked out the door. She didn't bother to wait for Kagome seeing as they weren't in the next class together.

"You're not a poet either, are you?" she asked Inuyasha as he followed close behind her.

"Nah." he said as he scooted around her to grab the door and hold it open for her. "I'm not really one for iambic pentameter or rhyme schemes and all that stuff. I'm more of a straight forward kinda guy." They stood in the hallway outside of the library. Inuyasha was going to his Business Math class, which was downstairs. Kagome was headed in the other direction.

"So what are you gonna write about?" she cocked her head to the side and gazed at him before he walked away and he grinned a slow, lazy grin at her again. Damn, he was a good looking bastard.

"I'm gonna write about _You_." he said, and turned away. Kagome stood dumbstruck in the middle of the hallway, blushing like a madwoman.

* * *

"So I heard the assembly 8th period is about the class elections," Rin said excitedly as everyone gathered at the lunch table. "We have to start thinking of who we're gonna nominate! Feel free to nominate me as the Secretary."

"Sure," Ayame smiled. "You got it freshman year and did pretty well."

"I heard Kikyo is running for president." Kouga made a face. "She is one nasty piece of work."

"Ew, really?" Rin mirrored Kouga's expression. "In that case, nominate me for president so I can show her up." she beamed at the table.

Kagome's interest was piqued when they mentioned the snobby girl from her homeroom and raised a brow in curiosity. "Why don't you guys like her?"

"She a fucking bitch and her titties are weird looking." Kouga said.

"Of all the things to not like her for, you pick her boobs." Inuyasha rolled his eyes as he picked at his pizza.

"I said she's a bitch, did I not? And I don't like the whole straight across hair cut she has going on. And her boobs are weird looking. They're pointy."

"And spaced farther apart than Kouga's balls." Ayame teased and the whole table laughed.

"Well at least I don't have to worry about her having authority over my class." Sesshomaru said. Rin poked his cheek, glaring at him.

Kagome half paid attention to their banter as she was doing her Calculus homework. "Hey, Kagome." Miroku called and she looked at him. "Have you decided on a song yet?"

"No. There are so many to choose from."

"Song?" Inuyasha asked her. Kagome blushed when she met his gaze. Last time they spoke, she told him to write about something he felt passionate about, and he said he was going to write about her. She didn't know if he was being serious or not, but she was embarrassed nonetheless and she was starting to draw conclusions to Sango's suspicion that he might like her.

"Our Calculus teacher gives us a starting problem on the board at the beginning of class, and we're allowed to take turns picking a song to listen to until he's ready to go over it." she explained.

"Oh, that's cool."

"You have Mr. Koji?" Sesshomaru asked and Kagome nodded. "He's a cool teacher."

"Yeah, I like him." Kagome muttered as she went back to her notebook after a brief glance at Inuyasha. She could still feel him watching her.

"Speaking of weird boobs and assignments, Miroku, did I mention our writing project to you?" Sango sneered as Miroku raised a brow.

"No, what is it?"

"We were given random letter to chose a topic about an essay or poem. Kagome got 'S', Inuyasha got 'Y', and I got 'P'."

"Yeah? What are you gonna write about?"

Inuyasha met Sango's eyes and they both grinned devilishly. Kagome's heart sank. "Inuyasha is gonna write about yeast infections," she said and Kouga's face fell. Sango continued: "Kagome is gonna write about her third nipple," Kagome's eyes widened and Kouga's mouth dropped open. "... and I'm gonna write about Inuyasha's wildly unkempt pubes."

A bit of chewed up food fell out of Kouga's mouth as he stared at Sango in disgust.

"Ew, Kouga!" Rin yelled at him.

"I need some pointers." Sango continued. "You've seen Inuyasha naked, so you have to tell me everything you know about his pubes."

"You've seen Inuyasha naked?" Rin raised a brow at Miroku.

"You have a third nipple too?" Ayame said incredulously and everyone turned to gawk at her. She slumped into her seat in embarrassment. "I mean... my ex had a third nipple..."

"No, I don't have a third nipple. Sango has seen me naked. She's teasing." Kagome had a deadpan expression on her face. Inuyasha and Sango were grinning so widely their eyes were almost squinted shut.

"What the hell is going _on_ here?" Rin's eyes were wide. "Miroku sees Inuyasha naked and Sango sees Kagome naked?"

"Okay first of all, I saw Inuyasha naked on accident." Miroku explained. "We were in middle school, in 8th grade, and he was in my swim class. I accidentally walked into his shower stall because he didn't have the curtain closed all the way and I thought no one was in there."

"And you looked at his pubes?" Kouga asked incredulously.

"Well you can't really _miss_ them.." Miroku shrugged. "It's not like I immediately opened the curtain to stare at his dick. They were just _there_."

"We were like 14 in middle school," Kouga said to Inuyasha. "How the hell were your pubes so eventfully unkempt that Miroku ran and told Sango about them?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I don't know about you, but I started going through puberty when I was 12, so yes, I had a lot of pubes."

"Had." Kouga scoffed.

"There's this great new thing called manscaping, Kouga. You should try it. Ayame says your ass is so hairy she can't even lick your asshole anymore."

Ayame and Sango burst out laughing, Rin and Sesshomaru looked at each other with their eyebrows raised in amusement and Kagome choked a bit on her orange juice, coughing and laughing.

"So you and Kagome can be naked around each other, but you can't be naked around me." Miroku playfully glared at Sango.

"Kagome and I have known each other since we were in diapers. I thought she was my sister until I was 4. She was naked in the room with me last night."

"And what did she do?" Kouga asked.

"I toweled off and got dressed?" Kagome glared at Kouga who grinned salaciously at her.

"That's all? How disappointing. If you ever wanna fool around with me and Ayame sometime..."

"No..." Kagome and Ayame said in unison.

"What, do you have an unkempt bush, too? I can navigate through it, trust me. I've been able to find my way through Ayame's pubes all these years. Actually, I don't really mind pubes. They add to the _musty_ flavor."

Inuyasha, Rin and Sesshomaru glared at Kouga in disgust.

"I'm not discussing my private areas with you, Kouga." Kagome said evenly.

Sango coughed: "She shaves."

"Oh for crying out loud!" Kagome smacked her shoulder and Sango threw her head back in laughter. Inuyasha and Kouga eyed Kagome as she flushed and shoved her face into her hands, not wanting to look at anyone.

"We can still see your bright red ears, Kagome." Rin teased. "The jig is up. You shave. Don't be ashamed of that."

"Yeah, but Kagome is the only person I know that shaves the whole thing." Sango commented. "Must be an American thing."

Kagome's head shot up as she glared at Sango. " _ARE WE REALLY GONNA SIT HERE AND TALK ABOUT PUBES THROUGH THE WHOLE LUNCH PERIOD?"_ she exclaimed and everyone stared at her in shock. It was the first time she spoke that loud. And then everyone threw their head back in laughter. Even Kagome's lips twitched a bit with the hint of a smile. She knew her lunch period was always going to be this crazy and even though she was extremely embarrassed, she loved every moment of it.

"Well you don't have pubes so I guess you're the oddball here." Inuyasha smirked at her and her face felt like it went up in flames at the look her gave her.

"I use to shave my pubes but it's a real pain when they grow back." Ayame said. "It gets unbearably itchy."

"I only shave my labia," Rin interjected. "I've waxed before but that honestly hurt so bad I'd never wanna do it again."

"Oh my God and then the lady gets a mirrors and _shows_ it to you!" Sango said. "So awkward. It looks like it's mad at me."

"I wonder what it was like for those women to have to look at bare, underage vaginas," Sesshomaru cocked a brow. "Imagine how awkward that is for them."

"Good point," Miroku said.

"Welp, I'm officially freaked out." Kouga stood up. "And for _me_ to be weirded out is really something. So I'm gonna go now..." he dumped his tray and left.

"What's up his ass?" Inuyasha raised a brow.

"His ass hair..." Ayame said and everyone laughed again.

* * *

 **This chapter is kind of a filler to show how Kagome is becoming more comfortable with her friends. There will be more fluff to come! And once again, I had to change the rating on this story because of the language and dialogue. However, there probably won't be any lemon. The summary has changed, too.**

 **Also I made some slight changes and decided on a uniform policy. It was brought to my attention that the story didn't really fit it with Japanese high school customs, so I made some changes to the story. However, I don't wanna change too much and ruin my overall plot. So every other high school aspect will remain for the most part.**

 **Please review!**


	5. Friends

Kagome sat in her Language Arts class bored out of her mind. Her teacher babbled on about something she refused to pay attention to as she stared out the window, daydreaming. Her teacher had arranged the class randomly with a seating chart that was prepared before the first day of school, so she didn't get to sit next to anyone she was capable of speaking freely with. She did note with interest though, that the boy, Akitoki, from her homeroom happened to be in the class with her.

Her teacher had decided to hand out text books, and Kagome didn't know how much longer she could stand carrying around so many heavy books at one time. They only had about 5 minutes between each class to navigate through the halls and use the bathroom, so she could hardly find a point to get to her locker without risking being late to class. Also, it didn't help that the school had so many floors.

She was excited and nervous about gym. She was excited because she knew Inuyasha, Kouga and Sango would provide entertainment throughout the class. And, not that she'd ever admit it out loud, but she found herself being anxious before seeing Inuyasha, and she was starting to think it wasn't just the selective mutism.

She was also nervous about gym. Mr. Rasoku was very strict, with a poker face and business like quality to him. She felt like he was going to make her life a living hell when it would come down to actually performing physical activities, though she hoped that undergoing a few months of self defense classes in New York would help her and provide some endurance.

She was finally pulled out of her reverie when the ball rang and she stood in a daze as she made her way to the first floor, barely noticing Sango kissing Miroku goodbye. He told the girls that he would try to find them to sit with them during the assembly. Sango led Kagome into the girls' locker room and they got changed into their gym clothes; Sango wore shorts and a T-shirt and Kagome wore tight sweatpants and a form fitting jersey.

They made their way into the gym and sat on the bleachers, waiting for the entire class to assemble. Inuyasha and Kouga were there, and Kouga wolf whistled at Kagome as they approached.

"Damn, Kagome," he didn't bother to be discreet as he looked her up and down. "You have quite a figure on you. I didn't think someone so small could be built like that."

Kagome rolled her eyes and Sango shot him a warning glare. "I wasn't kidding when I said I'd shove my foot up your ass if you harassed her, Kouga. Don't tempt me."

"I wasn't harrassing her, smart one. I was giving her a compliment."

"Fuck your compliments." she snorted and Inuyasha snickered, internally admitting Kagome looked really cute in her athletic getup.

Mr. Rasoku blew his whistle, ordering the class to line up for attendance. Kagome's biggest fears for gym were confirmed when he announced that he'd spend their first week testing their physical limits. Mr. Rasoku and the other gym teacher, Mr. Kaze, made both of the gym classes spread out throughout the gym to do stretches and warm ups like push ups, jumping jacks, butt kicks, and they had to run 5 laps around the gym perimeter.

' _I really need to keep in mind to wear a sports bra to gym anymore_ ,' Kagome thought embarrassingly and Kouga stayed up on her throughout the run, making comments about her bouncy bust. Sango huffed and tripped him, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

Inuyasha was something else. He whizzed passed everyone on the first lap, and was the first one finished. His baggy basketball shorts provided him with a good range of movement, and his long legs allowed him to take longer strides. He stood by the entrance of the gym at the water cooler and watched Kagome, Sango and Kouga finish their final lap.

Kagome was in awe of his physique. He was tall, that much was easy to notice, but he wasn't lanky like her brother. He was broad-shouldered, with toned, muscular arms and calves, and narrow hips. He'd tied his long black hair back in a low ponytail for the class, as was necessary. Students were forbidden from participating in gym with their hair down if it was past shoulder length.

Kagome now stood by the water cooler, heaving with her hands on her knees as she waited for everyone to finish their run. She'd been able to keep up rather well, ranking above average in terms of speed. Also, her self defense classes allowed her to build up a good amount of stamina so that she could keep her steady pace throughout most of the run.

After their 5 laps, they played a weird version of basketball where both classes lined up in order, and were given a number based on their place in line. Kagome was 8, Kouga was 11, Sango was 12, and Inuyasha was 17. Seeing as the opposite class had more students than Kagome's class, they were to take turns with their extra 2 players. If their number was called, they had to face the opposing class at basketball until one of the teams scored. They were allowed to pass the ball to people in their classes' sideline, but students on the court weren't allowed to steal the ball from students on the sideline while students on the sideline weren't allowed to run onto the court. If someone on the sideline was given the ball, they could pass it down the line toward their team's basket for a better opportunity to score.

Kagome never played basketball, but had a pretty good idea after the coaches explained the rules. Sango's number was called, along with a few other students and Kagome was amazed with her friend's ability to dribble the ball, and her speed. She blocked one of the opposing students as a girl from Kagome's class, Momiji, threw the ball to a boy next to Inuyasha in the sideline. He passed the ball down the sideline to the first person in their class, where the first student was able to throw the ball to someone on their team if they were open. The boy passed it to Sango and she fainted right, then shot for the hoop and scored a basket as her class cheered while everyone got back in line.

They were to do this until the class was over with, and Kagome had to admit she was having fun cheering on her classmates. Her number was called at one point and she ran onto the court. She wasn't really sure about how well she'd perform at basketball, but didn't wanna let her class down. She was passed the ball at one point and immediately turned around to throw it to Inuyasha in the sideline. The ball got to the end of the line and a boy from the opposite class blocked Kagome as she tried to catch it. She became frustrated as the boy dribbled the ball back down to the other end of the court and tried to shoot, but missed twice.

On his third attempt, Kagome smacked the ball out of his hand and she heard Sango and Inuyasha yelling to her in excitement and she felt herself grinning like a fool as she tried to maneuver the ball toward the other end of the court and took a shot, but missed. Another boy from her class, Bankotsu, caught the ball and scored her class another point. Bankotsu slapped Kagome a high five as they took their places in the sideline again.

When Kouga and Inuyasha's numbers were called at the same time, the didn't even bother to use the sideline as Kouga aggressively blocked off a girl that was trying to grab at the ball and passed it to Inuyasha, who was tall enough to run and dunk the ball into the basket as the backboard trembled. He was grinning and pumping his fists as he ran back into the sideline. Mr. Rasoku's class beat Mr. Kaze's class 5 to 1.

Kagome and Sango hurried down to the locker room to change. Kagome decided on a quick rinse in the shower before slipping back into her uniform. She adjusted her ponytail and sprayed some body spray while Sango waited for her in the hallway. Miroku had agreed to meet Sango by the locker rooms and they stood there talking excitedly about the assembly as Kagome sighed. She was admittedly feeling a bit third wheel with only Miroku and Sango and huffed as she struggled to hold her textbooks to her chest. She was still kinda sweaty even after rinsing off in the shower and wanted nothing more than to go home and take a nice long bath and settle down with a good CD.

The bell rang for the final period and Kagome followed Miroku and Sango into the massive auditorium. There were students crowding the room everywhere they went, and it was so tightly packed that Kagome felt like a crayon in a crayon box. They sat a few rows from the very back of the large room and Kagome watched the students when she settled into her seat as they called out to their friends and tried to save large seating sections for large groups. The atmosphere of the room was considerably lifted as students were excited to not have to go to a class.

Kagome sat in the middle of her row with Sango to her left and Miroku next to her. No one had taken a seat on the other side of Kagome, yet there were students on the end of the row. She sighed. Not like she wasn't used to it, and not like she really cared. She was honestly blatantly annoyed that no one was paying attention to her, not even Sango.

Just as the assembly was about to start and the principal came to the podium, she felt someone warm sit on her right but she wasn't paying attention as she listened to the principal make his opening announcement. As Rin had announced earlier, the class election was the topic of the assembly. Kagome didn't really understand the purpose of the class elections, as she'd never been to a school that held them.

She did learn through the assembly that the point of having class officers was to help improve problems in the school, create and organize activities for students and build funds for class arrangements like field trips, dances and spirit week. And that their leaders were basically "the voice of the student body."

Kagome found herself dozing off and she leaned her head on her hand as she yawned. She heard a deep chuckle beside her and glanced up from under her lashes to see Inuyasha trying to hide a smile as he peeked sideways at her. She sat upright, blushing. She hadn't realized he was sitting next to her. She glanced at him again and he was staring ahead again, but now looked amused. She briefly stared at his profile, drinking in his straight nose and strong jawline, before she tore her gaze away from him again.

At one point throughout the assembly, she found herself unconsciously shifted on her hand again, leaning toward him. Her forearm touched his as she realized he was doing the same thing, leaning toward her. Their eyes met briefly, and he mouthed something to her that she couldn't make out, but she picked out the word 'stupid.'

Finally, the students were dismissed from the assembly and Kagome stretched as she stood up before bending down to gather all of her books.

"Kagome, I'm gonna head straight home, okay?" Sango told her. "Do you know your way to the train station?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay. I was gonna head to my locker to drop my books off."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya."

Kagome exited the auditorium and shuffled up to the second flood, struggling with her books as she trudged up the stairs. Now that here classes were in full effect, she had a bit of homework to do and decided to use the rest of the final period in the library finishing some of her work.

"You want me to get those for you?" she heard someone ask from behind her and she turned to see Inuyasha climbing the stairs behind her.

"Excuse me?" she huffed breathlessly as he stood in front of her at the top of the stairs.

"Your books," he explained.

"Oh. Yes. No. I was just taking them to my locker," she stammered breathlessly.

"I can carry them for you, if you like. You look beat," he insisted as he extended his arms to take the books from her. She hesitated for a moment, then handed her books to him and he gave her a small smile.

"You don't like help, do you?" he raised a brow as he followed her.

"Not that I don't like it, but I also don't want to come off as helpless," she glared at him through the side of her eyes.

"Hey, I was joking when I said you were small and helpless." She was still glaring at him and he sighed. "Okay, you're small. But if me calling you helpless really upset you then I sincerely apologize."

She turned to face him as she reached her locker. He did look utterly sincere... She gave him a bright smile. "Then I accept your apology." She turned and opened her locker and scooted to the side for him to place her books inside. She bent in front of him and grabbed her copy of Macbeth and closed her locker.

"So aren't you going home?" she asked him as he walked along with her.

"Well I was gonna tag along with you, Miroku and Sango but they seem to wanna be alone."

"Yeah," Kagome grimaced. It was her first time feeling like the unwanted third party. "I guess she did. I mean she's been tending to me ever since I got back to make sure I settled into everything okay. I guess she's making time for her boyfriend now."

"And you feel left out?" he asked her seriously. Kagome bit her lip. She didn't want to say it out loud, as she felt it was disloyal to Sango, but she honestly didn't like how Sango only talked to Miroku and barely said a word to her.

"A bit. I'm sure Sango didn't intend for me to feel left out but... I don't know." she sighed and straightened her shoulders. "I'll be okay though. I honestly wanna get some of my work done so I'm just gonna hang out in the library for a while."

He gave her an odd look before he blurted out: "Do you mind if I join you? We can help each other with homework and hang out."

"Hang out?" she raised a brow.

"Yeah... you know... Enjoy each others company... shoot the breeze... together?" They were outside of the library now and she gave him a smile as he held the door open for her.

"Sure. We can hang out." Her eyes mentally widened as the picked a table and sat down. She'd never actually just sat alone with a boy and conversed with him. It was entirely new to her. And for some reason the fact that it happened to be Inuyasha of all people caused her to be constantly flustered. She sat at the head of the table while he took the seat to her left and scooted his chair over so he was closer to her.

She opened her copy of Macbeth and searched her folder for the worksheet. "Have you read Macbeth before?"

He nodded. "Yeah. A couple years ago. It's honestly the only Shakespeare play that I find to be half-decent."

"Really?" she raised a brow.

"Yeah. I'm not one for old English literature as it is, but someone probably should've arrested that guy for being insane because everything he writes about is gory or has some type of tragedy that results in a fucked up ending."

"Those days were tough times. Plays were one of the few types of entertainment they had." she scoffed and he rolled his eyes.

"Don't tell me you're defending him because of Romeo and Juliet."

"I actually didn't like that one," she said after a beat. "They don't go to far into the family conflict and depictions of love were honestly unrealistic."

"Like how he immediately forgot about his first love after catching site of Juliet?"

"And the whole suicide aspect was stupid, too. There was no real careful preparation, and there wasn't enough information about their plan to reunite being spread among the two of them."

"Oh my God, tell me about it."

"Everything was Friar Lawrence's fault," they said at the same time, then paused before they started laughing.

"Good to know someone shares my views on this," he smiled charmingly at her and she stared at her worksheet to avoid his gaze. They both started going through the worksheet answering all the questions and occasionally looked in the book for answers.

"I'm happy Ms. Yumata doesn't assign parts and make us read the play out loud." Kagome muttered at one point and Inuyasha raised a brow.

"I'm sure she will eventually. That woman assigns a lot of work for one simple class. We already have homework, a weekly prompt that's due in a few days, a project, a quiz on the first act next week. Like holy shit, cut us a break, lady!"

Kagome giggled. "Have you started your prompt yet?" she asked.

"I started writing it out. I'm gonna finish it up and type it tonight."

"What are you gonna preach to the children about?"

"Sango gave me an idea. She told me to stick to the basics so I'm gonna write about how education is important and that kids should strive for an education for a good career. I was honestly stumped about the assignment at first. I didn't wanna look stupid not having anything to say to a bunch of kids." He was writing an answer on his worksheet so he didn't see the face Kagome made when he said that.

Her face fell and she frowned deeply. She knew it wasn't directed at her, but that was something she struggled with for a long time as a child. Every day she would get pestered or picked on because she was simply incapable of making conversation and speaking in a room full of children. So a lot of the time she ended up sitting there blankly or she would break down and cry silently as her teachers yelled at her for not participating in class. It got to the point where her father had to come to the school almost every day to sit with her in the main office and ask her why she wasn't talking in class. It was at this point that Kagome's parents realized there was something deeply wrong with their child and went to a professional for a diagnosis.

Inuyasha looked up at her when she didn't respond and frowned at the look on her face. "Kagome...?" he asked and she seemed to snap out of it at the sound of his voice. "Is everything okay?"

"Umm..." she stammered a bit in embarrassment. "I was just thinking about something. I'm okay."

Inuyasha stared intently at her and she could feel his eyes burning into hers. She knew he didn't buy it, but he decided to drop it anyway. "So what are you gonna say to the kids?"

"I've decided on a motivational speech, encouraging kids to be active and outgoing and not giving into peer pressure." she smiled.

"Oh, that's cute." he smiled back at her.

"Cute?"

"I didn't mean it as an insult. I swear." he held his hands up and Kagome laughed. "It's nice to motivate kids to be active especially in these times when technology is taking over."

She beamed at him. "I'm glad you understand." They went through the rest of the questions and packed up their things. Inuyasha crossed his arms on the table and leaned toward her.

"I don't believe I asked you what you're writing your project about." he said.

"I'm still undecided." she responded softly.

"Yet to be inspired? Nothing passionate enough for you out there yet?" he teased.

She giggled. "Not quite, no. I've been tossing a few things around in my head, but I can't come up with enough information about one of those single topics to write an informative essay about it."

"So I take it you're not writing about how short you are then." he grinned teasingly at her and she lightly shoved him.

"No, I'm not," she laughed. "And I assume you started your project since you've been inspire by me?"

"By you?" he raised a brow.

"You said you were gonna write about me," Kagome blushed strongly at the memory and Inuyasha grinned. She was so cute.

"No, I said I was gonna write about _'You'_."

"Yeah, exactly." she said, then paused. "Wait, _me_ me or just a general you?"

"I'm not writing about myself." his grin widened. Kagome groaned.

"I'm confused. Who exactly are you writing about?"

"You." he said.

"So when you say 'you', you're referring to a general audience, which would be the reader?"

"Exactly."

"Oh."

"Disappointed?" he teased.

"No..."

"You're a liar."

"I am not!" she pouted and crossed her arms. Inuyasha wanted to squeeze her. He enjoyed teasing her too much. "I just thought that when you said you're writing about 'you' that you meant you're writing about me, _Kagome_." she explained.

"Yeah, that was the impression I wanted to leave, actually."

She gasped. "Why? To hurt my feelings and make me look stupid?"

"No, of course not. I'd never want to hurt your feelings." he was taken aback.

"Then why?"

"Because the look on your face was priceless." he laughed and Kagome pouted again. "I'm sorry, you looked so shocked, I couldn't help myself. I wish you could've seen how cute it was."

Kagome blushed strongly with pleasure, hearing that Inuyasha thought she looked cute. _'What am I thinking? Why should I care if he thinks I'm cute?_ ' she mentally scolded herself. Though she couldn't deny he was good looking either, especially now when he laughed at her, revealing his even white teeth and sharp canines. He looked completely at ease, and she found herself feeling pleased that someone other than Sango was sitting alone with her and genuinely enjoying her company.

The final bell of the day rang and Inuyasha and Kagome stood and packed their things. Inuyasha accompanied her to her locker as she put her books away.

"Would you like a ride home?" he asked her. "I know you're okay with taking the train by yourself, but I fear to think about what could happen to someone like you on public transportation by yourself."

"I'll have you know that I took self defense classes when I was in New York and can handle myself pretty well. You need to stop assuming that just because I'm small, that I'm vulnerable."

"I wasn't saying that at all. Though I'm always down for a challenge." He grinned, then got serious again. "No, but really, an attractive young woman like yourself riding the train by yourself late in the afternoon... I'd feel better if someone was with you."

"Fine," she said quietly, thrilled that he was so open about his physical attraction to her. It was disarming, but he also wasn't a pervert about it like Kouga was. It was nice to know that someone thought her to be attractive without being raunchy about it. In fact, she realized that she'd really enjoyed his company a lot. Almost as much as she enjoyed Sango's company. He was sweet and funny and kind and easy to talk to, and they seemed to have a lot in common in terms of their views on literature.

They went out into the student parking lot and he waited for her to buckle her seat belt before he started the car and backed out of the parking lot. He was playing some J-Pop song in low volume on the radio.

"I have my Spotify set up on my phone," he told her. "You can put on anything you like."

Kagome picked up his phone and noticed that the background image on his phone was him, Sesshomaru, Kouga and Miroku wearing dark sunglasses standing in front of an in-ground pool in their swim trunks and coconut bras, posing like _sexy ladies_ and she giggled.

"What's with the wallpaper?" she asked and he raised a brow.

"Took that last summer at a hotel we all went to for a wedding. Miroku's uncle Mushin got married there and we all crashed for the weekend."

"Do you guys always go out and do crazy stuff during the summer?" she asked.

"We used to," he explained. "This summer that just passed, I got a job so I didn't have much free time. Sesshomaru works, and devotes most of his free time to Rin. Kouga and Miroku still like to try to round us all up to do things but it often doesn't work out because not all of us can get the time off."

"What do you do for work?" she asked.

"I'm a waiter."

"Oh."

They were at a red light, and Inuyasha glanced at Kagome for a moment, drinking in her delicate profile as she stared out the window. She had a small, slightly upturned nose and puffy fully lips with a delicate curve in her lower lip. Her skin was smooth and pale and she had a slim neck and jawline. Her hair had been pulled back into a messy ponytail for the day, revealing all angles of her face. She really was quite beautiful.

"Kagome?"

She turned and looked into his eyes as he called her. "Hmm?"

"Why did you come to Japan?" he asked. Her heart stuttered and the way he raised a brow at her indicated that he noticed her reaction to the question. He looked forward to watch for traffic and accelerated when he was clear.

She was again faced with the predicament of having to talk about herself without giving too much away. She knew she had to lie to an extent, and for some reason lying to Inuyasha didn't sit right with her. Not that she was okay with lying to anyone else, but Inuyasha seemed to be the one person she met in her new school that really reached out to her. Sure Ayame and Rin were very kind to her, but Inuyasha was the only one who openly teased her like they were old friends and tried to be around her by escorting her places and offering to take her home every day.

She decided that she wouldn't lie to him, but she would simply not tell him details that would give away her history of anxiety.

"I convinced my mother to come back to Japan because I missed it," she said. "I lived here until I was 7, then I moved to America and my mom found work out there. But I was miserable."

"Why were you miserable?" he glanced at her again and saw that her face had fallen. He instantly regretted bringing it up as he didn't want to be responsible for triggering any bad memories. "I mean, if you don't mind telling me, that is..."

"No, it's okay," she insisted. "Well, my mother was depressed from being so far away from her husband and my brother, who was still a baby at the time. And then my father died some time after from a heart attack. " Inuyasha's eyes widened as he glanced at her again. "He had to be raised by my grandfather for a while, and then last year I was talking with Mama, and I'd just gotten my learner's permit for driving and I told her I wanted to come back to Japan. So we did."

Inuyasha was quiet for some time. No wonder Kagome was so quiet and almost standoffish. She was ripped away from her own culture she'd grown up with for her mother to work in America. Her mother had to be away from her son and husband, and Kagome her father, then they lost him forever. He shook his head. This was so messed up.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up such nasty memories." he said softly.

"It's okay."

"No, it's not. I barely know you yet I'm prying personal information out of you just because I'm curious. It's not my place to be so intrusive."

"Well if I didn't wanna tell you, I wouldn't tell you, Inuyasha," she said seriously. "I know that I only met you yesterday but... It feels good to make a friend... who reaches out and tries to understand me. And getting all of that off my chest..." she sighed. "I don't know. I just know that I wanted to tell you, and that I trust you with the information."

They were parked in front of her shrine now, and he gazed at her with a softened expression. "You didn't have friends in America, did you?"

She shook her head. "The only friend I've ever had up until yesterday was Sango."

Inuyasha's heart shattered. She looked so utterly sad and vulnerable, and he wanted nothing more than to pull her into a hug and tell her that everything was going to be okay. He didn't know why he cared about this girl so much, but he did. Ever since she literally came crashing into his life and he stared into her frantic eyes, he knew there was something behind her face that called out to him. She was a shy, lonely girl. All she wanted was a friend. She needed a friend. She was so shy and lonely most of her life because she didn't _have_ friends. He closed his eyes and sighed gripping the steering wheel while Kagome stared into her lap, twiddling her thumbs.

"Do you have a cell phone?" he asked her suddenly.

She raised a brow at the unexpected question. "Mama got me a prepaid phone for the time being..." she stopped as he popped open his glove compartment and grabbed a pen and a napkin.

"This is my number," he handed it to her. "You can call or text me any time. If I don't respond, then I'm at work, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

She folded the napkin with a bewildered look on her face. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"Because I wanna be friends. I think you're a very sweet girl, Kagome. I don't want you to feel alone. I want you to have someone there to talk to when you need them." She could tell by the look on his face that he was being completely serious. He had no hint of flirting or teasing in his expression and she clutched the napkin in her small fist and her heart stuttered in her chest.

"Okay." she said simply and gathered her bag and unbuckled her seat belt.

"One more thing," he said, lightly placing his hand over hers on her backpack and she gasped at the shock that went through her upon physical contact. "Would you like to ride to school with me in the morning?" he flushed a bit as he leaned a bit closer to her than he intended to, and her breath hitched in her throat as she looked into his beautiful eyes.

"Yes," she said breathlessly and he smiled a small, almost shy smile. Kagome's heart leaped.

"I'll see you at 7:30 in the morning. Make sure you text me tonight so I can save your number, okay?"

"Okay," she smiled back as she got out of the car. "Thank you. Have a good night, Inuyasha."

"You too. See ya in the morning," he said as she got out of the car. He waited until she finished climbing the long staircase and disappeared from view. He revved his engine and headed home, his heart fluttering like crazy. He knew there was more to the personified mystery that was Kagome. He didn't know what else was going on with her, but he knew that he wanted to be there for her if she was going through anything. He wanted her to be able to tell him when something was wrong. He wanted her to open up to him. He wanted her to lean on him.

He turned on his wipers as it started to drizzle, thankful that Kagome made it home before it rained on her. She looked so lovely when they joked and laughed with each other in the library, and he was anxious to see that look on her face every day. Hell, he was excited to know he'd see her first thing in the morning.

This would be the start of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	6. Campaign

Kagome got up at 6:30 the next morning to get herself ready for school. She normally took her time getting ready in the morning when she knew she was going out somewhere, but since Inuyasha would be there in less than an hour, she was frantic. She rushed her breakfast, not bothering the make her usual cheese omelet and had a bowl of miso soup instead. Her hair was wild and frizzy from the previous day, seeing as she was sweating after gym and washed it and left it in a towel bun most of the night before bed.

In all honestly, it slipped her mind to do her hair the previous night because Inuyasha was distracting her. She texted him after her bath, and stayed glue to her phone after dinner most of the night texting him back and forth. He hadn't worked the day before, so he had plenty of time to tease her with weird strings of emojis and funny memes that were directed at her before they bid each other a farewell.

Not before Inuyasha told her that he was looking forward to seeing her in the morning.

Gazing in her bathroom mirror as she brushed her teeth, she decided to attempt to straighten her hair and finished with time to spare. Just as she bounded down the stairs to gather her backpack and put her shoes on, she heard someone knocking on her door. She expected Inuyasha to just wait in the car and her heart fell into her stomach as her mother went to open the door before she could.

Karori's surprise was written all over her face when she saw Inuyasha standing there all dolled up in his uniform, with a large black umbrella in his hand. He smiled politely and bowed at her as she gawked at him.

"Good morning." He was charming as ever and Kagome wanted to roll her eyes at her mother as she stood there, still staring at him and she could tell by Inuyasha's face that he was wondering why she hadn't said anything yet. Ironically, it was just like the time he met Kagome. She idly wondered if she also looked that stupid when she bumped into him without saying anything.

' _Jeez, Mama. I know he's good looking but keep your panties on,'_ she scolded in her mind as she came up behind her mother and lightly nudged her.

"I'm sorry," Karori stammered. "Good morning. May I help you?"

"I'm here to pick up Kagome. We're schoolmates, and I offered to give her a ride so she wouldn't get caught in the rain."

"Of course," she was still in a daze as she turned her had. "Kagome! Your friend is he–"

"I'm right here, Mama." Kagome rolled her eyes and Inuyasha grinned and bowed as he caught site of her. She was so small, he didn't notice her standing behind her mother. She turned to him and raised a brow. "You didn't have to come all the way up those steps," she said apologetically. "I was going to wait at the bottom for you."

"I didn't want you to get rained on, so I brought an umbrella for you," he explained. Kagome tried not to swoon.

"Who's your friend, Kagome?" Karori asked and Kagome gasped as she realized she'd forgotten her manners.

"Mama, this is Inuyasha. Inuyasha, this is my Mama, Higurashi Karori."

Inuyasha bowed again. "It's nice to meet you."

Karori was speechless as she nodded a silent greeting. Kagome huffed and hurried out the door after giving her mom a brief, awkward hug. Inuyasha sped walked to keep up with her, hovering the umbrella over her.

"Why the rush?" he was grinning ear to ear.

"Mama is acting weird. That was mildly embarrassing," she admitted.

"I thought it was entertaining. Now I know where you get it from."

"Get what?" she asked.

"Well, your bashfulness, for one. And you look a lot like her. Really pretty," he explained.

She slowed to a regular pace as the reached the stairs, blushing at the unexpected compliment.

"Some place you have here," he said distractedly.

"Thanks."

"Your hair looks really pretty today."

"Uhh... thanks..."

"You're blushing."

She stopped her decent to turn and glare at him. "Dammit, Inuyasha, not now. It's too early for the teasing now. Please," she sighed as he kept up with her, using his height to his advantage by easily covering them both with the umbrella.

"Have you eaten?" he asked her and she nodded as he opened the passenger side door for her and held the umbrella open until she climbed in, then struggled a bit to close it before climbing into his side of the car. "Well I picked up a couple breakfast sandwiches in case. If you don't want it I'll give it to Kouga and tell him it's a special gift from you."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because he doesn't flirt with me enough. Nothing like sending the wrong message to someone who's already in denial."

Inuyasha chuckled. "I don't think he actually likes you. I mean I don't mean to offend you, but it's true."

"I'm not offended at all. I don't want him to like me," she said petulantly and Inuyasha stifled a laugh.

"Well I honestly think he's still pretty stuck on Ayame."

Kagome raised a brow. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, whenever our group gets together outside of school to hang out or whatever, we like to do a _buddy system_ , as Rin calls it. Basically couples stick to each other so no one gets lost or left out. Kouga always claims Ayame as his buddy. He says it's because the rest of us already have a significant other, but it's pretty obvious he's very territorial when it comes to her. Sure, he'll flirt and say stupid shit to other females for fun and jokes, but Ayame is the only girl I've ever seen him genuinely happy with," he paused. "That, and those two usually always sneak off to fuck around when we wanna do something."

"Well I'm sure Ayame still has strong feeling for him, too."

"Oh, yeah. I don't know why those two ever separated to begin with. I mean obviously it was Kouga's fat mouth flirting with other women, but aside from that, they act the exact same way toward each other as they did back when they were an official couple."

"So your whole buddy system... who's your buddy?" she asked quietly and he narrowed his eyes.

"My buddy is no longer a part of our group. But she tries to stay in touch with me."

Kagome's heart fell into the pit of her stomach, and she didn't understand her reaction to that statement. "Wait, you have a girlfriend?"

"No. Like I said, she tries to stay in touch, but honestly we're all over her. She's childish... even more so than Kouga. And she's rude and petty."

"May I ask who she is?"

"Do you know Kikyo Hiromi? I'm sure she's in your homeroom."

"Yes, I know her. Rin mentioned she's running for class president, and Kouga said her boobs are weird looking."

Inuyasha grinned. "Yeah, well she and I were kinda, sorta, not really dating. She liked me in freshmen year, and she used to be close with Ayame, but she caused a lot of unnecessary drama among the group that resulted in Ayame punching her in the face."

Kagome's eyes widened. "Wait, Ayame? Sweet, innocent, naive Ayame? Punched someone? In the face?"

Inuyasha laughed. "Yeah. She really is one of the nicest people I've ever met, but when you get under her skin... oh boy."

"So what exactly happened?"

Inuyasha's face fell. They were at the school now, and he smoothly reversed into a parking space. "Well, to be honest it's a pretty dark story," he said in seriousness. "And kinda long, but I'll sum it up." He pulled the keys out of the ignition and unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face Kagome. She raised a brow, wondering what happened that made him get so serious.

"Ever since middle school, our group has always consisted of me, Miroku, Kouga, Sesshomaru and Ayame. Sango joined soon after when she befriended Ayame in seventh grade, and Rin joined freshmen year when she met Sesshomaru. So basically, I met Kikyo freshmen year through Ayame. She made it pretty obvious that she was crushing on me, and in all honesty I wasn't into her that way, but I figured 'what the heck, she's cool.' So she became my _buddy_ among the group since I was the only single person. Sango and Miroku didn't start dating till this past summer, but they were always that couple that everyone knew liked each other and never admitted it.

"Anyway, at the time of our middle school graduation, Miroku's uncle, Mushin, let us throw a party at his place. He's a really cool guy, and he has a lot of money and a pretty big house. And with Ayame and Miroku being quite popular, we invited a lot of students from our class to the party.

"Now you know Kouga; he loves to flirt. So at the party, he was jokingly flirting with Kikyo and she was actually flirting back with him, and it pissed off Ayame. She was concerned that me and Kikyo were an official thing, though we weren't, and that she might've been cheating on me. But also, she and Kouga were an official couple at the time.

"So Ayame confronted Kikyo about the whole Kouga thing and she tried to play it off like they were joking around. Some time after during that summer, we all went out camping and Kikyo was joking about sharing a sleeping bag with Kouga. By this point, we were all pretty much over how she acted around Kouga. Hell, even _Kouga_ was getting tired of it.

"At some point while we were on the camp grounds, Kikyo tried to straddle Kouga when we were sitting around the fire, and Ayame flipped out and punched her in the face. Kikyo hasn't said a word to anyone in the group except me ever since."

Kagome's eyes were round. She believed it, as the girl Kikyo tried to antagonize Kagome on her very first day of school, but it was still difficult to picture sweet, unassuming Ayame hauling off and hitting her in the face. She gulped as she stared at Inuyasha in shock. "And why does she still try to contact you?"

"She thinks I was okay with everything that happened, seeing as she knew I wasn't really into her, thus she never actually betrayed me or hurt my feelings, _but_ I still find her to be problematic and quite annoying. I value my friendship with Ayame way more than I ever did with Kikyo, and I know I'll never be able to sit in a room with both of them again, so Kikyo had to leave the group. It took me, Kouga, Sesshomaru and Sango to pry Ayame off the poor girl." He chuckled.

"Jeez." Kagome was speechless. And here she thought Ayame was such and angel. "I suppose even the sweetest of people can have the nastiest temper."

"Oh, yes." Inuyasha grinned. "Now we should probably head to homeroom," he spied the clock on the radio. "Unless you wanna play hooky and grab some sake and ramen?" he wiggled his eyebrows at her and Kagome giggled.

"No, thank you."

"I'll take you out some time. I know a great place. And seeing as you're the newest addition to our 7-person group, would you do me the extraordinary honor of being my new buddy?" he smiled shyly at her and her face heated. "It's not like we're a couple or anything," he quickly added when he saw her expression. "Just that whenever Kouga or Rin tries to pull some huge trip or get-together or something, we all have a buddy to go with so no one feels left out."

Kagome stared at him through his explanation. The thought of being invited out with the group was extremely pleasing to her. ' _Me? I'm officially in the group now?'_ she felt her lips pull up into a smiled as he mouthed 'You know you want to' at her and she giggled.

"Okay. So let me get this straight; first we're friends, and now we're buddies?"

"Exactly."

"Okay," she said after a beat, and they got out of the car and headed into the school. Then it dawned on her. "How come Sesshomaru doesn't ride with you?"

"He basically lives with Rin and her family. He just turned 19 and as far as I know, they've been looking for an apartment."

"Oh. And how old is Rin?"

He thought for a moment. "She'll be 17 in mid January. She's the baby of the group."

"Yeah, Sango told me."

He turned and narrowed his eyes at her as they walked through the crowded hallway. "What else has Sango told you?"

She gulped. The way he was looking at her made her nervous. "Why? Something you don't want me to know?"

"I'm not hiding anything from you," he held up his hands. "I just want to know what she said about us so I can debate on whether or not we'll have to rip her a new asshole later."

Kagome laughed. "Good look with that. I've watched Sango beat up her brother."

"Ya know, I just thought of it... Sango is literally the single most athletic female I've ever met, I've watched Ayame beat up Kikyo, and Rin beat up Miroku freshmen year. And then I find out you took self defense classes. I'm surrounded by some feisty ladies."

They were now at Kagome's locker and she raised a brow at him as she gathered her books. "Why did Rin beat up Miroku?"

"Before he started dating Sango, he was quite a flirt, too. He grabbed Rin's ass. He's lucky she wasn't dating Sesshomaru at the time. He'd probably be dead right now."

Kagome giggled and he raised a brow at her again. "I'm getting off topic, dammit. What has Sango been telling you about us?"

Kagome sighed as she followed him to his locker. It was on the same floor as hers, but on the other side of the school.

"Well it's not like she was talking badly about you guys. She and Miroku came over, and I asked them about their high school friends. They said Ayame is a ditz, but a big sweetheart. Rin is also sweet and small like me. But she can be a perv too."

"Honestly, we're all perverted in a way."

"Oh, I believe it," she scoffed playfully.

"Hey, be thankful I'm not trying to grope you or something. Miroku and Kouga have taken a lot of beatings from girls because of the way they came off," he chuckled. "So who else?"

She thought for a moment. "She mentioned Sesshomaru is older than everyone in the group. And that he had a brother, who often competed with Kouga over stupid things," she concluded with a sweet smile and Inuyasha sputtered.

"Me? Compete with him? That fool can't beat me at anything! Even Sango and Ayame are more of a challenge than he is!"

Kagome giggled. "I never doubted you, Inuyasha. I was only going by what Sango told me. And anyway, after seeing you in gym yesterday, I'm convinced."

He grinned triumphantly as they stood outside of her homeroom. He noticed Kikyo glaring at him as she walked past them and into the room. Kagome sighed and he stepped closer to her, looking seriously into her eyes.

"Look, Kikyo won't be happy about seeing you with me. She kinda still has a thing for me... but just ignore her, okay? She's not worth the conflict, honestly." _'And she'd never be able to compete with you,'_ he added in his head and frowned, surprised by his thoughts.

"I'm not worried about her," Kagome said. "And if she does become a problem, my self defense training may or may not kick in..." she giggled and Inuyasha smiled softly at her.

"Have a nice day, Kagome. I really enjoyed your company," he smiled at her and she blushed and nodded in agreement. She bid him a farewell before moving past him into the room.

"I'll see you fourth period, Short Stuff!" he called to her as she entered the room, grinning widely at her and she blushed as everyone in the room witnessed the interaction.

* * *

"Where the hell were you two today?" Rin huffed as Inuyasha and Kagome joined the table. He'd met with her after her Home Ec. Class and walked her to lunch. "I was looking everywhere for you guys this morning!"

"What's up?" Inuyasha asked her as he took his usual seat beside Kouga and Sesshomaru.

"Have you forgotten that I'm running for president of the Junior class? I need my campaign team, dammit!"

"Oh not this again, Rin." Ayame groaned. "We were up all night designing posters and coming up with catchy slogans to use for your campaign. I need a break from this crap."

"Her ideas were so corny." Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and Rin pouted.

"They were not corny!"

"Rin. I love you as much as I'm capable of loving someone while putting up with their shit. And you are _very_ corny."

"But I loved my idea!"

Sango raised a brow. "Rin, the point of having a campaign team is to have others to support you and back you up on your ideas and promote them, but you have to also be willing to run with or at the very least listen to some of their ideas."

"I know, but I really liked my slogan!"

"It was crude. That will turn a lot of people away from wanting to vote for you," Sesshomaru said.

"What was her slogan?" Sango asked.

"' _Kikyo Hiromi doesn't stand a chance. If you want change, the votes arRIn.'"_ Ayame groaned.

"ArRIN?" Miroku asked incredulously.

"Yeah, like 'are in', but it's my name!" she beamed and Miroku threw a french fry at her.

"Lame."

"Nobody asked you." she huffed.

"Well I'm on your team so you have to listen to what I say. A good leader should consider the opinions of the student body."

"Look, I just wanna win to beat Kikyo. It can't be that hard! All we have to do is come up with creative ways to reach out and grab everyone's attention so that they listen to my ideas on how to do presidential stuff."

"Rin, I know you're trying to be cute but whatever you have planned, you better do it fast. Kikyo's been putting up posters and handing out cookies since this morning," Sango said and Kagome's eyes popped open as she glanced around the cafeteria. Sure enough, there were posters dotting the walls with slogans of students who wanted to run in the election.

 _'How had I not noticed this morning?'_ she asked herself, but deep down she knew. She was so distracted by Inuyasha that morning that she hadn't paid much attention to anything but him, and she flushed at the thought.

"We can make T-shirt, or buttons," Sesshomaru suggested. "And create a facebook page for your campaign. We can invite Ayame and Miroku, seeing as they're two of the most popular kids in your class. Get them to advertise your campaign and invite others to join the page and share your ideas for the school with regular updates."

Everyone stared at him in awe. "Well fuck. Mr. Smart Man over here," Kouga muttered.

"Hey, it's not a bad idea," Ayame said. "And it's a realistic, and appropriate approach. You can't go bashing other candidates to get your point across, Rin."

"I know that," she muttered petulantly.

Kagome tuned everyone out as she went over her homework from the previous night. She'd completed a good amount of it with Inuyasha in the library, but still had a bit to do, and a newly approaching quiz in her Law and Citizen class. She was amazed at the pace of the school learning system. Three days in, and she had 2 upcoming quizzes already.

She shuffled through her folder, looked for a worksheet from her Language Arts class, and her eyes widened when she noticed her textbook was missing. Surely, she had it in her locker that morning. Realization dawned on her, as she realized that she'd never stopped her he locker before lunch, since Inuyasha had met up with her and distracted her with conversation. She still had all of her morning textbooks, and she knew she wouldn't have time to go to her locker before her class started. She groaned.

"What's wrong, Kagome?" Sango asked her.

"I forgot to go to my locker before lunch. I don't have my language book."

"You forgot something?" Sango raised her brows in surprise. "That's unlike you."

"I know. I was distracted."

Inuyasha bit his lip as he stared at her, feeling a bit guilty. He knew it must have been his fault she'd been so forgetful. "You wanna borrow mine?" he asked her. "I have that class in the morning, and I never put my book away. Just make sure you give it back to me at the end of the day."

"Oh, thank you," she said softly as he slid his book across the table at her. Only now this meant she had to carry all of her books. She dreaded the thought.

"Look at you two all buddy-buddy," Kouga said. "You two fucking or something?"

"Go to hell, Kouga. There's a difference between being nice to somebody and wanting to fuck them," Inuyasha hissed.

"I don't know, it's hard to tell with you." He snorted. "Maybe you're being nice to her _because_ you wanna fuck her? I mean _look_ at her. She's so hot. Who wouldn't wanna hit that?"

"Me?" Sesshomaru raised a brow. Miroku raised his hand as he was chewing on his burger.

"Okay, aside from the fact that you guys are in relationships, you don't think Kagome's hot?"

"You know, you can admire a woman's beauty without being sexual about it, Kouga," Inuyasha scolded. "And I don't think you should be putting Kagome on the spot like that. It's disrespectful." He glanced at Kagome to see her blushing, but she gave him a small appreciative smile.

"Yeah, you wanna fuck her," Kouga murmured. "Good luck finding his little dick through those pubes, Kagome."

"Oh jeez, not this again." she turned bright red as everyone laughed. Inuyasha chuckled and winked at her. Rin raised a brow.

"How do you know it's little?"

"I don't know actually. Let's ask the Pube Master," Kouga smirked as he turned to Miroku, who paused mid-chew as Kouga cleared his throat. "Miroku, you've seen Inuyasha's dick. How big is it?"

Miroku swallowed his food without really chewing it and cleared his throat in embarrassment. "I only caught a glance, Kouga. I'm not feeding into this conversation. I've just about had it with your obsession with Inuyasha's genitals."

Inuyasha threw his head back in laughter as Kouga's face fell. "Yeah, why _do_ you wanna know how big my penis is?"

Kouga sputtered. "I don't know! I mean-I don't. Oh _fuck_ you! You set me up!"

"Kouga, you set yourself up," Ayame grinned at him and he groaned.

"I don't wanna know how big he is. I was just trying to tease Kagome and Miroku!"

" _Right,_ that's what they all say." Inuyasha chuckled. "I'll put it like this: it touched that back of your mom's throat last night, and it wasn't even halfway in."

Everyone burst into laughter again as Kouga slammed his fist on the table.

"Apply cold water to burned areas," Sango said between laughs.

"Whatever. You stick to your corny 'yo mama' jokes. Just keep in mind that I have the Master Sword here." Kouga said petulantly. Miroku raised a brow.

"Really? Zelda innuendo?"

Inuyasha smirked devilishly, "You can keep your Master Sword. I have the Biggoron Sword, and you need to use _both_ hands to handle it. Plus, it hits way harder." he wiggled his eyebrows at Kouga. "I even have my blue tunic on so I don't drown in the pussy."

"Well I have my metal boots, so I don't lose my footing," Kouga countered and everyone stared at him like he was speaking another language.

"Lame!" Rin said, fake yawning.

"Somebody better get my red tunic, cause I'm on fire!" Inuyasha slammed his fist on the table, grinning like a maniac at Kouga and everyone laughed again.

…

Kagome went through gym in a daze. She guessed that the coaches were always gonna have them play some weird version of a game. Today was kickball, and instead of running around the bases once, each player had to run around the bases twice, and each team needed 5 outs rather than 3 to switch fields. Also, more than one player was allowed on each base at a time. Kagome remembered playing kickball when she was really young, but her older memories were faded and unclear.

She came to discover that she was a pretty decent athlete among her peers. She was nothing like Sango or Inuyasha, but she performed to an ability deemed acceptable as she kicked the ball and ran around the bases. She even caught the ball for an 'out' when her class played in the outfield.

She liked gym in the sense that the activities they did were actually pretty fun, but she really wanted to spend time with Inuyasha again. She'd had so much fun talking to him that morning, and she loved how he opened up to her about the whole Kikyo thing. She guessed it was kind of a sacred thing in their group if they all mutually agreed to not invite Kikyo to their social gatherings anymore, and Sango never mentioned Kikyo to Kagome at all in all the years they spent exchanging emails and phone calls.

She briefly considered that, if Inuyasha was so open to her about his past problems, then maybe she should tell him about her social anxiety. He had mistaken her as simply being shy, which honestly wasn't his fault, as it was an understandable conclusion to jump to. She wanted to tell him, but she also didn't want to feel like she had to tell him one of her deepest secrets just because he opened up to her about certain things, and she comforted herself with the knowledge that he'd never expect her to spill information just because he did. He wasn't that type of person.

She quickly caught his eye as they exited the gym to get changed, and he gave her a smile before disappearing into the boys' locker room.

She decided to spend her 8th period in the library again. She had a lot of work to do, and she wanted to study for her upcoming quizzes. She sat at a desk in the private study section, with barriers on all sides of the desks to keep students from being distracted. She was thoroughly absorbed in her notes when she felt someone tap one of the sides of the barrier to get her attention.

"Excuse me, Miss," she heard him say. "I'm looking for my text book, and I was wondering if, perhaps, you might have seen it?"

She looked up to see Inuyasha grinning down at her and she bit her lip to hide a smile.

"Yeah, I lent it to a friend of mine earlier today, but she disappeared before I had a chance to get it back from her. Maybe you've seen her." He was teasing her, but she was highly amused by it. It wasn't the teasing that people meant to be unkind. "She's about this tall," he gestured her height by holding his hand up to his belly button, "with long hair and pretty blue eyes."

"Oh, so now I'm a midget? I may be small, but I'm not up to your belly button. I'm level with your sternum." she grinned back at him as he took the seat next to her and pulled the chair out so he could see her past the barrier.

"Close enough, honestly." He laughed at the look on her face. "No, but really. I'm glad I found you here. I have homework I have to get done and it'd be pretty tough to do without my textbook." He watched her pick up her large pile of books off the floor and handed his language book to him. "You know, they have lockers for a reason."

"I know, but I honestly don't have enough time between classes to get there. I'm considering asking for a new one."

"You could move your stuff into my locker, if you want. You have girly book socks, so we'd be able to tell our books apart. Also, my locker is closer to your classes because it's on the same side as the Biology and Language Arts rooms."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"No, not at all. Also, it means I get to see you more often." He gave her a soft smile that reached his eyes.

She blushed. "I didn't know you liked me so much."

"I like you very much," his smile widened as he showed his teeth. Kagome looked away from him in embarrassment and stared distractly at her notes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you."

"No, it's okay. I was actually gonna head home before the period is out and I have to fight with hundreds of other kids to leave the building," she rolled her eyes and he chuckled.

"I don't suppose you want a ride?"

"I knew you were gonna ask. Why did I even bother getting a student metrocard?"

"Because you didn't think I'd like you so much?" he suggested and she frowned.

"Yeah, you're right. I honestly didn't think anyone would like me. But It's nice to have a friend other than Sango."

"For as self preserving as you come off, you don't seem to think very highly of yourself," he observed.

"Well when you grow up with no friends, you can't help but feel that it's natural for people to not like you."

Inuyasha glared at her. "Right, enough of the natural. If it's weird for me to like you, then I guess I'm weird." He stood and carried her books to his locker, and showed her his combination before he escorted her to the school parking lot.

"Also, I won't be able to talk to you today. I have work in an hour."

"Okay. I have studying to do anyway."

They were quiet during the ride home as he put the radio on a comfortable volume and sang along with the music. Kagome smiled, staring out the window and listening to his soft voice, secretly watching his reflection until they pulled up to the shrine steps.

"I'll pick you up same time tomorrow, okay?" he gave her a hopeful smile and she swooned.

"Yes." She got out of the car. "Goodnight, Inuyasha. Have a good day at work," she gave him a small smile that he returned as she closed the door. He waited for her to get to the stop of the steps again, before he pulled off. He picked up his phone and sent her a quick message, then started his engine.

Kagome went up into her room and looked at her phone and saw that she had two messages. One of them was from Sango.

 _Rin wants to group chat for the campaign tonight. You in?_

The other was from Inuyasha, sent 2 minutes ago.

 _I wasn't kidding when I said I like being around you. Have a good night. I'll see you in the morning._

Kagome sat on her bed, biting her lip, feeling a blush creep across her face.

' _It's official,'_ she thought to herself. ' _I like him. I like him a lot.'_

* * *

 ** _Please review!_**


	7. Events

Ever since she came to terms with her sentimental admission, Kagome had fallen into a new routine that was becoming easier for her to slip into. Every morning she would ride to school with Inuyasha, and every day at the end of school, whether they sat in the library or decided to stay and help with after school clean up, she would ride home with him. On some days, he'd even escort her to her front door if they were so consumed in their conversation.

She questioned how he had the means to a vehicle, seeing as high school students driving was extremely rare, and he revealed that he was 18, with wealthy parents that paid for his driving courses. That, and the car actually belonged to Sesshomaru, but seeing as he usually stayed over Rin's house, he rode to school on the bus with her every day.

She was also becoming increasingly more confident with speaking in large groups whenever she was asked a question by a teacher, or speaking freely with her other classmates. The only thing she couldn't quite get down was verbal communication over the phone. With Sango and her mother it was simple, but Inuyasha had asked on a few occasions if he could call her, with the excuse that whatever he had wanted to say was something he didn't want to have to type out. Kagome became very nervous in these situations and would make up excuses like helping her mother prepare dinner or doing homework.

Sango usually stayed over Kagome's house during the weekends, so they could catch up on school assignments and attend the occasional Saturday classes together. After a while, even Rin and Ayame would be invited to Kagome's house, where they usually indulged in gossip, silly teenage games, and lots of teasing on Kagome and Ayame's behalf. Ayame would be teased about getting back together with Kouga, and Kagome would be teased about not dating Inuyasha because it was obvious to everyone that they liked each other.

In truth, it's not that Kagome didn't want to date him. However, she'd usually settle on the idea that she only knew him for a month, so it was much too soon to jump into a relationship. Sango and Rin would usually complain that time shouldn't be a measure of how much someone could like someone else, seeing as Rin met Sesshhomaru her first year of high school and started dating him that very same year.

Aside from that, Sango teased Kagome saying that she and Inuyasha were already a couple, without the title. It became apparent to everyone that they'd been spending the morning and after school together. Not to mention, sharing a locker was usually a big step among teenagers, and–unknown to anyone but Inuyasha and Ayame–Inuyasha asked Ayame if she minded switching seats at the lunch table so that he was snug between Kagome and Rin, and Ayame could sit next to Kouga.

No one assumed anything by the change on Inuyasha's part because Kouga had succumbed to an injury in gym that left Ayame attending to him constantly. While playing football in gym, Kouga volunteered to be the goalie, and at one point had the ball kicked in his face so hard that he'd broken his nose. And with Ayame being so worried and protective of him, everyone thought they were dating again but the couple denied it.

The school year was rapidly approaching October, where a lot of students were beginning to prepare for the Sports Day events. Every day students had to perform various stretches and exercises to prepare for the competition. Participating in school events was something that Kagome hadn't done since she was a small child. She was thankful that the student elections were over with, as she found it to be extremely overrated. That, and though Rin had become a very good friend of Kagome's she honestly didn't think her friend was mature enough for such a responsibility. Thankfully though, Kikyo didn't win, either.

Kagome was excited about Sports Day. She discovered that she was actually a pretty good athlete among her peers and had to admit that the gym teacher's weird made-up sports were good practice for running, throwing, jumping, and their daily stretches helped with her flexibility.

During the event, participating teams were dressed in a matching athletic uniform and placed to complete individual and team challenges against others. Kagome was placed into a random team with more Juniors and competed in team challenges like relay races, and tug-of-war. During the relay race, when was it was Kagome's turn to advance, she had to do a certain amount of cartwheels all the way across a safety mat on the ground, which made her head spin, but her team won. Her family had shown up to the event, and cheered Kagome on from the stands.

During the lunch break, Kagome and her mother caught up with Sango's family again, exchanging pleasantries. It'd been a couple months since Kagome and Karori last saw Sango's mother and her little brother, Kohaku. She barely had a chance to spend with any of her friends seeing as the teams were divided randomly and everyone stuck with their families during the free time.

She caught Inuyasha's eye at one point during lunch break. He was standing with Sesshomaru and an attractive middle aged couple who she assumed were their parents. Inuyasha bore a striking resemblance to both adults, especially the woman, who had the longest hair Kagome had ever seen. He was a perfect blend of the two, while Sesshomaru looked like his father to a 'T'. Inuyasha smiled and waved at her before returning to entertaining his family.

At one point in the day, Kagome was very amused to see Inuyasha and Miroku on a cheering squad composed of only boys, as they competed against other male cheering squads for the team win. At the end of the ceremony, medals and trophies were handed out among winning teams and individuals for their victories and all of the students assembled to help clean all the team ribbons and chairs and tents from the events. It honestly had to be one of the single most fun experiences Kagome ever had in her life.

It was the week after the big event, and Kagome sat with her friends during lunch. Due to the change in seasons, students were now required to wear long sleeve shirts with their uniform, and boys had to wear a black military style button up rather than a shirt and vest.

"So I've finally decided on a trip for all of us," Rin said excitedly. "I've done some skulking around and there's a community of college kids that are doing a Siren-remake-horror event!"

"Siren?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah, it's a horror game based on the mysterious village of Hanuda." She grinned wickedly before pulling out a piece of paper and lightly scanning it. "According to the site, the game focuses on an isolated village of people who practiced a strange religion. The village strangely disappeared after an earthquake caused a landslide in the 70's and is no longer found on any map."

"And these facts led to a game? So is this even a real place?" Kouga was staring at Rin with a skeptical expression.

"No one knows for sure. Anyone brave enough to look for it either gave up because of the road being blocked by the landslide, or they were never seen again."

"And where is this Hanuda place?"

Rin blushed. "Err... somewhere by Hokkaido.."

"Hokkaido!" Sango's eyes bulged out. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to get there? Not to mention, how much it would _cost_ to get there? You're insane."

"I never said the event was _in_ Hokkaido, you butt! The event is only an hour or two away from here. There's gonna be food, music, scenery, and 3 main events. Admission is 3,800 yen. V.I.P. admission is 5,400 yen."

"V.I.P.?" Kouga asked. "What is it, a club or something?"

"No. V.I.P. Means you have access to all 3 major events, you get a discount on food, and you can cut the lines in half. Say the regular line has 50 people. You can cut 25 of those people." Rin beamed like a small child and Kouga chuckled.

"Okay, so what are these events?"

Rin's smile turned malicious. "Well, seeing as it's a horror theme, there will be three horrific main events." She paused to look at the paper again. "The first one is a haunted hayride, which seats up to 45 people and goes through a remake of the Hanuda village and surrounding forest. The hayride lasts about twenty-five minutes."

"Sounds spooky." Inuyasha grinned.

"The second event is called _'Infection'_ , and it's basically a maze-like obstacle course that you have to get through as quickly as possibly before the _Shibito_ villagers find you."

"Shibito?" Kagome's eyes widened.

"I believe Americans call them zombies?" Rin said and continued. "You'll be given a belt with 3 flags on it and you have to make it all the way through without getting any of your flags ripped off, which clearly means that the actors are allowed to touch you," she shot Kagome a playful glare as she slumped into her seat. Rin laughed.

"Don't wory, Kagome. There's this little thing I call the bitch stick that they give to jittery guests. It's a glow stick that you wear around your neck so actors know that you don't want to be touched. But that doesn't mean they won't try to scared the shit outta you."

Kagome stared at her lunchbox, not saying anything. Rin continued.

"And the final event, which in my opinion will be the most terrifying... They remodeled and old community center to replicate the Saiga Hospital. It's a walk through. You have to find certain objects and solve various puzzles and they take you through and show you various rooms, and Shibito will come out to terrorize us and chase us through until we find our way to the goal!"

Everyone at the table grinned excitedly, exchanging feedback on the event. Kagome was nervous. She appreciated being invited out, but she'd never been a fan of any horror-type of entertainment. She was easily spooked.

"Now my only dilemma with this is finding a vehicle that can support 8 passengers," Rin admitted sheepishly.

"My uncle Mushin has a Totyota Highlander," Miroku said. "Since Inuyasha and Sesshomaru have licenses, one of them can drive."

"Uhh... I'm honestly not so sure I'd be comfortable driving such a large vehicle full of passengers," Inuyasha admitted and Sesshomaru rolled his eyes.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" he eyed his girlfriend as she made a pouting face at him. He sighed. "Guess I'm driving..." he said and everyone squealed in excitement except Kagome. Rin scowled at her.

"Don't tell me you're going to chicken out."

Kagome gulped and stared into her lap shyly. "Well... to be honest I've never done anything like this."

"So? Inuyasha is your buddy; he'll be right with you if we have to separate our group somehow, though I doubt that'll happen. Infection allows 6 people at a time, and the hospital allows groups of up to 12 people at once."

"So two of us are gonna have to do Infection without the rest of the group?" Ayame said.

"Yeah. Me and Sess will sit out while you guys go in. We'll go with a separate group," Rin said absently. "We're not scared."

"I'm not scared, either!" Kouga said and Rin raised a brow.

"Kouga, close your legs. I can smell your vagina."

"Shouldn't you be having unprotected sex or something?" he muttered.

"Who needs condoms when you have birth control?" Rin countered and turned back to Kagome. "Look, the bitch stick is free if you really want it. They'll give you a glow stick at the front of the line before you go in the attraction if request you one. We can buy our tickets online so we don't have to wait when we get there. And it's not all horror. They have games and food and places to take picture and stuff. Plus, it'll be your first full outing with all of us!"

Kagome avoided eye contact and glanced at her hands in her lap again, biting her lip.

"Please?" Rin asked. "Oh please, oh please, oh _please_?!"

"Rin," Kagome whined, "even if I wasn't scared to go, how on earth would I get the money to go?"

"I'll pay for you," Inuyasha smiled at her and Kagome shook her head.

"I appreciate it, but I don't want you to have to spend any money on me," she said and Inuyasha frowned deeply.

"Kagome if you don't come I will shave my head." Rin scowled.

"Is that a bet?" Kouga grinned at Rin.

"Bet?" she raised a brow.

"Yeah, she's too chicken to come. I'll bet she'll be a no-show."

"Okay, it's a bet," Rin grinned back at him.

"You two are gonna bet on Kagome showing up at the event? Honestly?" Sango rolled her eyes.

"I hope your boyfriend still loves you when you're bald," Kouga snickered.

"I can be quite persuasive, Kouga," Rin winked. "If I lose, I'll shave my head. If you lose, you have to shave your ass."

Everyone burst into laughter while Kouga gave her a dirty look and crossed his arms.

"And you have to show it to us!" Ayame added.

"Oh my God, _yes!_ " Sango exclaimed. "No, before and after you shave!"

"The hell?" Miroku raised a brow. "I don't wanna see his ass!"

"That's because you're jealous that my ass is manlier than yours," Kouga said to him.

"Big words coming from the _man_ who got his nose broken playing soccer." Sesshomaru snorted. Kouga growled something under his breath while everyone laughed at him.

* * *

Inuyasha pulled up in front of the shrine steps and helped Kagome gather her books to escort her up the stairs.

"So you're really not gonna come to the Siren thing?" he asked her. Kagome shrugged. He'd been asking her all day and each time she gave him an indirect answer and it honestly made him upset. He was looking forward to actually hanging out with her outside of school, especially after she agreed to be his _buddy,_ and honestly was considering not going at all if she didn't.

That, and he didn't wanna have to look at his future sister in law with a shaved head.

"Can you please just drop it, Inuyasha?" she sighed. "I don't have the money and I've never gone to something like this before."

"I told you I'd pay for you. If it makes you feel better, I'll even let you pay me back. Please just come with us," he implored her and she looked up at him. "If you're really that scared, I'll sit out with you. You don't have to participate in any of the attractions, but at least come along to hang out."

"Why do you want me to go so badly?"

"Because you're my little buddy, and it wouldn't be the same without you. Honestly, if you don't go, I'm not gonna go either."

They stopped outside of her door and she turned to face him. "I don't have to participate?"

He shook his head. "No. And I'll even sit out with you. It's a buddy's job to look after their partner and stay with them so no one feels left out. Besides, how do you know you wouldn't like it if you've never gone to something like this before? You may have a lot of fun."

"Do you guys always go to horror events for Halloween?" she asked and Inuyasha raised a brow.

"No. This is purely coincidental, given the time of the year," he explained. "We don't celebrate Halloween, though some people dress up for the fun of it. But no going to houses for candy. It's considered to be a nuisance."

"Oh..."

"Did you celebrate Halloween in America?" he asked and she thought for a moment.

"I've never actually dressed up or went trick-or-treating, but Mama took me to the New York City Halloween Parade. It was amazing, and loud."

"Parade?" he raised his brows.

"Yeah. They do a huge parade every year and people show up in costumes and they play music and dance and stuff. Random people can even join the parade if they're in costumes. Me and Mama once lived in an apartment building that was on the route of the parade, and we'd sit on the terrace and watch the parade every year until we moved to the Village in Southern Manhattan."

"Oh, that sounds fun." He gave her a small smile and then sighed. "Well you may also have fun with Siren and... well, do you honestly want Rin to lose to Kouga?"

Kagome made a face. "Choosing between a bald Rin and Kouga's ass... It's honestly a tough one," she giggled and Inuyasha chuckled lightly. "Okay, I'll go. But I haven't decided on whether or not I want to participate, okay?"

He grinned at her. "Okay. I'm really happy you're coming, Kagome. It really would've been dull without you there. Even if you decide you don't wanna participate, I'm happy to be your buddy."

"Oh stop it," Kagome grinned back at him and he handed her backpack and textbooks to her as she opened the door to go inside. "I'm only doing it for Rin's sake. I don't want her going bald."

"Damn, so you don't even wanna go to make me feel better? You think I wouldn't be lonely without my buddy? You have no consideration for my feelings." He put on a pouty face and Kagome giggled.

"Well seeing as you're so desperate to be around me, I'm also doing it for your sake."

"Desperate?"

"I think you have separation anxiety when it comes to me."

"I wouldn't deny it, honestly. You're my favorite person in the group." He gave her a bright smile that reached his eyes.

Her heart stuttered. "Really?"

"Well yeah. Not that I dislike anyone else in the group. Well, maybe Kouga. I don't know." He shook his head as she started giggling again.

"I like everybody in the group... Even Kouga. Though I think by default Sango kinda has to be my favorite."

"Oh please. I've been friends with Miroku, Kouga and Ayame since I was a pre-teen and I still think you're the most pleasant to be around."

"Pleasant? What an odd choice of words."

"Well, you don't use fowl language, you don't complain, you stay out of trouble. You're probably the smartest person in the group aside from Sesshomaru. Let's see..." He thought for a moment. "You're small and shy and adorable–"

"Stop, please." Her face was a deep shade of red. "I don't know if I can handle a confession of love right now." She added jokingly and he raised a brow.

"I wouldn't call it a confession of _love,_ but I do like you," he said.

Kagome giggled at first but stopped when she realized he had a perfectly straight face. He was in no way, shape or form joking and she felt herself starting to choke up.

"Come again?" Her voice was barely audible.

"Uhh, nothing." He quickly covered as he also started to blush strongly. "You should go inside. Your mom is gonna start to wonder where you are."

He held the door open and Kagome stepped inside, not responding. She was in shock. Inuyasha bid her a rather awkward farewell and disappeared through the shrine and down the steps. Kagome closed the door and brought her books up to her room, not knowing what to say or do.

 _'Inuyasha likes me?'_

* * *

"So, I've been looking into accommodations in the area that are fit to house all 8 of us, seeing as it will be cheaper."

Everyone at the lunch table listened to Rin as went through the information on their upcoming trip. The trip was to take place the very next weekend since they wouldn't have Saturday classes that weekend. Sesshomaru complained that he didn't wanna have to drive two hours to the event, then back in the middle of the night, so everyone decided to chip in on a place to stay for the night before they drove back to Tokyo. Rin began looking into hotels and the like since they had to make reservations quickly.

"Do you guys wanna do a western style hotel with multiple rooms?"

"That sounds expensive," Sango complained and Rin sighed.

"Well the problem with booking so for many people is that if we wanna aim for cheaper places, we're gonna have to cram and sleep with multiple people in one room, and possibly even one bed."

"I don't mind sleeping on a floor," Ayame said. "If no one else does, we can get a one-bedroom and have 2 or 3 people in the bed and everyone else can sleep in sleeping bags on the floor."

"Or even a two-bedroom," Miroku suggested. "Guys in one room, girls in the other."

"No offense, but I don't wanna share a bed with any of you louche fuckers," Inuyasha complained.

"Yeah, you wanna share a bed with Kagome," Kouga teased and Kagome flushed. She was still shocked about his accidental admission the day before.

He tried to play it off like he didn't mean it, but it was already apparent to everyone, including Kagome that he liked her. She was a bit awkward around him that morning during the ride to school and didn't say much, using being tired as an excuse. Inuyasha noticed but decided not to comment. He didn't wanna make her feel any more uncomfortable than she already did.

Kagome didn't know if it made her feel awkward because she'd never been romantically involved with someone before and didn't know what to do in the situation, or if it was because she actually like him back. Maybe it was both. She was shy and awkward around him again, but she _had_ become quite close with him, and didn't want to hurt his feelings by pushing him away.

"Fuck you." Inuyasha said simply, ignoring him. He turned to Rin. "I think it'd be a better idea to maybe rent a house, instead. Even a small one, with at least two bedrooms. We can do two people to each room, two to a couch, if they have one, and two people on the floor in sleeping bags. Sango and Miroku can share a bed, you and Sess can share a bed, and me, Ayame, Kagome and Kouga can sleep in separate sleeping bags or available futons."

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they considered his idea.

"That's actually really smart," Ayame murmured and everyone agreed.

"And it saves the non-couples from the awkward situation of sharing a bed with someone," Sango added.

"Yeah, and renting a house for a night is cheaper than most hotels. Usually only 15,000 yen per night," Inuyasha said.

"I'll start looking into houses up for rent in the area," Rin said. "Also, my dad already bought all of our tickets online, so just give me the money for you V.I.P. admission whenever you can. But I need everyone's contribution to the house as soon as possible."

"Yeah, well I already asked my uncle about borrowing his highlander." Miroku started. "He said if it's returned in worse condition than it was before it's given to us, he's gonna rip my balls off and force feed them to you guys."

"Oh, speaking of places where the sun doesn't shine," Inuyasha started, smirking at Kouga. "I hope everyone's ready to look at your hairy ass."

"You're going?" Rin gawked at Kagome, who blushed.

"Well I can't guarantee that I'll participate in the scary stuff, but I don't want you going bald..." she trailed off when Rin's smile widened.

"My dad already bought the tickets, so you know what that means?"

Kagome sputtered. "If your dad already bought the tickets, then you were gonna force me into it either way?!"

Kouga's eyes widened. "You cheated on the bet, you little shit."

Rin ignored him.

"It was a test. To see if you loved me enough to prevent me from going bald. And did you really think I'd let you slip away from an opportunity to snuggle against Inuyasha in fear all night?"

Kagome stared incredulously at her friend. "You wanted me to tell you I was going, even though you were gonna force me into it, just so you could feel assured that I really care about you?"

"Yes, and it worked!" Rin surprised everyone by launching out of her chair and across Inuyasha's lap, grabbing and pulling Kagome across him and into a tight hug. "I love you too, you silly, silly girl!"

Sango and Ayame chuckled at the shock on Kagome's face as kids from nearby tables were staring at Rin like she was crazy. Inuyasha awkwardly scooted his chair back away from the two girls.

"Welp," Miroku sighed. "Guess this also means we have to look Kouga's ass."

* * *

 **Sorry this was such a short chapter. I really wanted to go more into the Sports Day thing, but I got sidetracked in my research about it. Anywho, as always please review and let me know what you think!**


	8. Road Trip

It was Friday, the day before the group was set to go out to the event, and everyone was going about preparing for the trip throughout the week. Kouga and Ayame had gone out on a shopping spree to grab essentials for their weekend away: toilet paper, toothpaste, trash bags, disinfectant wipes, snacks for the road, food for the house, and gathered extra blankets to accommodate anyone who wouldn't have a bed to sleep in.

Rin had contacted a home owner who was willing to rent out a house for a cheap price. Unknown to anyone but her and Sesshomaru, she told the owner that there would only be two guests, so that they could get the cheapest available group price. The owner offered the house for cheaper as long as the guests were willing to clean up after themselves before they left. Sesshomaru had to sort out all the planning under Rin's direction, as she was still a minor.

Miroku had to do tedious chores for his uncle Mushin in exchange for borrowing his car. Chores included sweeping, mopping, laundry, cutting the grass, and helping his wife prepare dinner. Inuyasha and Kouga teased him about his _housewife training_ , as they called it. He asked them for assistance since they would also be riding in the car, but they laughed in his face and declined.

Sango decided to stay with Kagome for the last few days of the week so that they could prepare together. Sango brought multiple changes of clothes for staying at Kagome's and one outfit for the trip. Rin had taken leadership of the group and was quite strict about planning it. She insisted that since there were so many of them that they were to keep their packing to a minimum and only brings things that they absolutely needed. Everyone was to bring one change of clothes, one set of pajamas, toothbrush, deodorant, and a brush. The homeowner insisted that the house got pretty hot, especially at night, so she instructed everyone to bring light, summery sleeping clothes.

Kagome was glad to have Sango over, as she hadn't really had time to spend with her best friend one-on-one lately. Either Sango was with Miroku, or it was her, Ayame and Rin with Kagome. During the nights that Sango stayed over, Kagome prepped herself for the events to come by watching scary movies every day. She wasn't really exposed to horror films as a child, since it wasn't something that her mother particularly enjoyed. Sango forced Kagome to sit through _Ju-On, Ringu,_ and American classics translated into Japanese like _The Poltergeist,_ and _The Blair Witch Project,_ since they'd be in the woods. Much to Sango's amusement, Kagome responded very negatively to the movies, screaming and jumping and clutching onto her friend and brother for dear life.

"It's gonna be so cute watching you snuggle up against Inuyasha when you get scared," she teased at one point.

Not that Kagome could lie, she was very happy to be going out with the group, especially Inuyasha, outside of school. Even if she was going to be scared out of her nuggets, she knew she'd be happy to have Inuyasha by her side to protect her from whatever was going to happen. They hadn't had a lot of time to spend together during the week, seeing as they were always in class or in the company of others. She hadn't had much time to spend with Inuyasha alone. She frowned when this thought occurred to her, as it didn't make sense to feel this way when they were just friends, but she couldn't deny it.

She was glad to have her friend over, but at the same time spending so much time with Sango meant that Inuyasha was less inclined to be around. They'd both been teased about dating when the other wasn't around, but both were also much too shy to actually come out and say or do something about it. In all honesty, Kagome missed being with just him.

Karori was initially against Kagome going along with her friends, but after much talking down by Rin, she relented. Rin was one hell of a negotiator, and she assured Karori that nothing would happen to her daughter while under her and Sango's watch. Kagome was in awe watching her speak and run through her points of the trip and whatnot. She wasn't lying when she said she could be very persuasive.

That day after school, Inuyasha packed his car with Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Sesshomaru. He dropped Kagome and Sango off at her shrine, while he and Sesshomaru were going to spend the night with Miroku at his uncle's house since Sesshomaru would be driving. Also, it'd be a bit easier to not have to pick up so many people the next day. Ayame also spent the night with Kouga.

Kagome stepped out of the shower late that night and toweled her hair dry before heading into her room. Sango was on the phone with either Rin or Miroku, she guessed, and she discarded her towel to apply her desired lotions and oils.

"So be ready by 2:30-ish?" Sango was writing something down in a small writing pad and Kagome raised a brow and mouthed 'who is it?'

"It's Inuyasha," she replied then went back to the phone. "No, Kagome asked who I'm talking to... Yeah her vagina is freshly shaved."

"Sango!" Kagome's face turned red and Sango beamed and set the phone down, putting it on speaker.

" _Uhh... okay?_ " Inuyasha's voice floated through the speaker with electronic sweetness. " _So yeah, Rin said the trip will take approximately two hours, and there's gonna be a rest stop along the way."_

Kagome listened attentively to the conversation while she pulled on her undergarments and a tank top. She dreaded having to sleep in pajamas during the weekend, especially since Rin told everyone that the house was going to be hot at night. She considered taking a shower and hoping her wet hair would keep her somewhat cool. She was gonna hold off a shower until she got home, mostly because the thought of being completely naked in a house with Kouga was unsettling to say the least.

"So we're leaving early in the day because Rin wants to do all this dumb shit?" Sango rolled her eyes and Inuyasha chuckled.

" _What's that Miroku?"_ he said away from the phone, then back to Sango. " _When we get there, we're gonna get our things settled in the house, then maybe go shopping for some other shit that we probably won't need. And we're gonna go out to eat before we get there._ "

"Sounds like a plan."

" _Yeah, Miroku's bitching that I'm talking to you, so I'm gonna go now. He said goodnight._ "

"Oh tell him to get over it. He'll see me tomorrow. And we're gonna be sharing a bed so he better not be complaining!"

Inuyasha chuckled then paused for a beat. " _Tell Kagome I said goodnight, okay?_ "

Sango grinned devilishly at Kagome as she blushed. "Actually, she can hear you. You're on speaker."

There was another pause. " _Hiya, Kagome._ "

"Hi, Inuyasha," her heart was pounding for some unknown reason. She hardly reacted like this when she spoke to him in person. Why was it so damn nerve wracking over the phone?

" _Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow."_ Awkward pause. _"Goodnight._ "

"Night," she said shakily as the line went dead.

"Jeez, Kagome, contain your orgasms," Sango shook her head and Kagome raised a brow.

"Pardon me?"

"If that boy doesn't make you insanely horny, than I'm a Filipino transsexual named Ong."

"Horny!" Kagome sputtered. "Jeez, Sango, I like him. Just because I like him doesn't mean I wanna be ravaged to kingdom come by him."

"Kagome, your face is beat red, you're trembling, and your voice got all throaty when he directly addressed you. Tell me that doesn't mean you don't wanna ride his cock into the sunset."

"The hell?!" Kagome's eyes were round as Sango burst into tears, laughing and clutching her ribs at the priceless look on her friend's face. Kagome ducked her head in embarrassment as she untangled her hair and neatly braided it, aiming for morning curls again. Sango was still laughing when Kagome climbed into the bed and cocked a brow at her friend.

"Are you done?" Kagome sighed as Sango sat next to her.

"Not quite... Seriously, Kagome. What are you gonna do if it comes down to having to sleep next to him tomorrow?"

"Well I'm not gonna have sex with him," Kagome snapped. "You're one to talk. You're in no hurry to open your legs and you've known Miroku for years. Why are you egging me on about sleeping with Inuyasha?"

"Because I like seeing you blush," she chuckled, then got serious. "Look, Kagome. At this point in your life you're doing so well with being social and making friends. Hell, you're even steadily maintaining a friendship with someone who you have romantic feelings for."

Kagome remained quiet as she picked at a loose thread on her blanket.

"Look, I'm not being serious when I say you should bang him but, at _least_... Don't let him slip through your fingers. He's a very nice guy, and he likes you. This is the first time this has ever happened. I think you should leap for your chances."

Kagome snorted. "That was so cheesy."

Sango chuckled. "I know. But trust me, Kagome. I think you'll end up hating yourself if you let him get away. He knows that you're shy and that you don't wanna be pressured into anything, so he's not gonna come onto you too strongly. You have to meet him halfway and let him know that you're interested, too."

"And how do I do that?"

"I don't know, laugh at what he says, engage him in conversation?"

"I already do those things." she whined.

"Well, don't be afraid to hold onto his arm tomorrow. I know you're scared of this whole Siren thing, and this just might be your chance to be all snugly and let him know that you need him to feel safe and secure."

"So basically throw myself at him? I don't like coming across as desperate, Sango."

Sango thought for a moment. "Okay, how about this. They say when you really like someone, it feels like you hit a home run. You feel excited and victorious and your adrenaline is pumping. You with me?"

Kagome nodded.

"Do you feel this way when it comes to Inuyasha?"

"...To an extent. I don't feel victorious but I get the adrenaline and excitement."

"Okay, now here's my point. Say you hit a home run. You're excited, and your adrenaline is spiked and all that. Tell me, when you hit a home run, do you stand there and watch the ball, or do you run the bases?"

Kagome cocked her head to the side, her friend's point becoming clear. "So you're saying if I like someone, I hit a home run. If I stand there, I'm letting them get away, and if I run the bases, I go for it?"

Sango grinned. "Exactly."

"You're cornier than Mexican food." Kagome laughed and Sango soon joined in.

"Look, just do whatever you feel makes you happy, okay?" she said seriously and Kagome nodded as she shifted to lay down facing the wall.

"So what were you and Inuyasha talking about? What's the plan for tomorrow?"

Sango flicked off the lamp and cuddled into Kagome's pillows. "We have to be up by 11 at the latest and get ready by 2:30. Rin wants to pick everyone up and leave out around 4ish. We're gonna make a stop halfway there for the bathroom and stuff. When we get there we're gonna drop our stuff off at the house and maybe go out to eat before we head out."

"Okay," Kagome yawned. She pulled her covers up higher on her body and drifted off to sleep.

…

The next day, Sango and Kagome got up around 10 and cleaned her room, then went about to make breakfast. Karori wasn't home, but she insisted that Kagome text her to check in every hour or so when she left to make sure she was okay. They saw that Karori had packed them each a small lunch of rice balls and pickles to take for the trip. Sango took a shower while Kagome finalized her things, making sure she had everything she needed. She had her deodorant, toothbrush and pajamas along with a different shirt for the next day.

Despite the rental house being hot, Rin said it'd be quite chilly that night, and that everyone should dress in layers. Kagome decided on a camisole under a form fitting gray thermal with black jeggings. She had a thick sea foam colored jacket with fuzzies on the inside, and matching sea foam Converse sneakers. As much as she liked her school uniform, she was happy to be able to dress like herself again. She buffed out her hair, loving how her braid caused her hair to fall in soft waves to the small of her back. She hurriedly put on a bit of mascara before Sango came back into the room, hoping her friend wouldn't notice.

She didn't seem to suspect anything when she got out of the shower, dressing in black sweat pants and a pink crew neck sweater. She donned her jacket and grabbed her backpack and they headed out at about 3:30, waiting for Sesshomaru and the others at the bottom of the shrine steps. They would be the last ones to be picked up before they headed out.

When the Toyota finally pulled up, Rin, Inuyasha and Miroku got out to help the girls with their things and organize the trunk. The back was loaded with extra blankets and duffle bags.

"How are we gonna fit all of this with these blankets back here?" Miroku asked. Rin thought for a moment while Inuyasha helped Kagome with her bag, greeting her warmly. She was beyond excited to see him. He was casually dressed in jeans and a thick red hoodie, similar to hers.

"Take the blankets out and lay them out along the seats." Rin was all business. "Put the duffle bags on the bottom and the grocery bags on top."

"See this is why we should've waited until we got there to start buying all this shit," Inuyasha scowled. "There's no damn room for all of it."

"We will make room, dammit! Now take the blankets. Lay the across your laps if you have to." Rin scowled and shoved the blankets in Inuyasha's arms. He mumble curses under his breath while he walked to the side of the car. While Rin and Miroku got situated with the trunk, Inuyasha climbed into the very back on the driver's side and stuffed the blankets under his seat.

"Everyone sit with their buddy!" Rin yelled. Kagome scooted to the back between Inuyasha and Ayame. Kouga sat in front of Ayame, and Sango and Miroku sat in front of Kagome and Inuyasha. Rin waltzed to the passenger seat when she was done packing the trunk and Miroku groaned.

"It's still so cramped in here."

"Yeah... maybe Kouga and Rin should switch places?" Sango suggested. "I'm squished between these two."

"I don't want his loud mouth in my ear while I'm driving," Sesshomaru growled. "Besides, he probably doesn't know how to work the GPS."

"I do," Miroku volunteered. "I'll switch with Rin if she doesn't mind."

"Wow, you'd give up and opportunity to grope Sango through the whole ride?" Kouga snapped and Miroku glared at him.

"We'll have plenty of time for that tonight," he scoffed and Sango slapped him. "Alright, Rin. Let's get this over with before she kills me." Miroku stepped out of the car and walked around to the front while Rin slid out of her seat and scooted into the back.

"We have to stop for gas before we get on the highway."

"I know that, Miroku," Sesshomaru sighed. "Just a heads up. I don't want any back seat drivers."

"He's touchy because we didn't have sex last night," Rin whispered to Sango and Kagome who giggled. Kagome snuggled between Inuyasha and Ayame. Despite it being cramped in the back, it was quite comfortable. Everyone remained seated as Sesshomaru stopped to pump some gas.

"I hope everyone went to the bathroom before you left," Rin said.

"I may have to shit. So I'm probably gonna be cutting up the whole way there."

"Kouga, I will kill you."

"I'd like to see you try."

"So what are we gonna do for two hours on the way there? I want something to help me get in the mood," Ayame said.

"Jeez, you were in the mood all last night." Kouga rolled his eyes and everyone cringed.

"No, ass. I meant in the mood for some creepy shit!"

"Are you kidding me?" Rin exclaimed. "We live in _Japan._ Horror capital of the world. I'm sure we can we can find something scary to talk about."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure Kagome would appreciate some scary stories," Sango turned around to glare playfully at Kagome who grimaced.

"I have a good scary story," Inuyasha said as Sesshomaru got back in the car and started up the engine. "Tonight, in about 2 hours, we all have to gaze upon the horror that is Kouga's ass."

Everyone started laughing and Kouga shook his head.

"Hope you don't have any dingle berries," Sango made a face.

"Oh, he doesn't," Ayame assured.

"I really hope you two don't plan on fucking tonight." Inuyasha made a face while Kouga grinned at him.

"I'll make sure to be extra loud just for you, Inuyasha."

"Fuck you."

"At least I'm getting fucked tonight."

"Yeah, whatever."

"You two can take that shit outside," Rin said. "I don't wanna smell balls or vagina juice at any point during this trip."

"Oh, and we're supposed to believe that you and Sess won't do anything?" Ayame teased and Miroku sighed.

"Sure wish I was..."

"No one will be doing any fucking of any kind, dammit!" Rin said. Kouga raised a brow at her.

"Who the fuck made you boss of the trip?"

"Well, I planned the trip so what I say _goes_."

"Fuck you. If I wanna fuck Ayame tonight then I _will_. And I'll make sure to leave the door open so we can all bask in the _stank_."

"You're fucking disgusting," Inuyasha groaned. "Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to go."

"Because Kagome's going?" Sango said and Kagome blushed.

"So I guess we're not telling scary stories?" Ayame complained.

"No, we will. Let's wait until we're a good way on the highway though. We're still in town for goodness sake. It'll be creepier when we're surrounded by trees," Miroku said.

"Well put on some music in the mean time!"

"What do you wanna hear?" Miroku asked as he pulled out his phone and hooked it up to the system.

"Something up beat and road trip-y."

Miroku browsed through his library while everyone talked excitedly to each other. Inuyasha casually draped one of his arms across the back of the seat, behind Kagome and she blushed at she looked up to see him smiling at her.

"Are you excited?" he asked and she shrugged. "Nervous?" he asked and she nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be with you every step of the way." He gave her a reassuring smile and she grinned back. She was beyond happy to be by his side at that moment. It was almost ridiculous how happy she was at this moment. The stereo flickered to life, playing a funky up-beat song.

"Tekken Tag 2 music?" Kouga raised a brow and Miroku grinned.

"'Your Sunset' is a great road trip song! It's fun and gets you in the mood. Plus, the sun will be setting soon!"

"I don't mind Tekken music as long as it doesn't loop too long." Ayame said.

"It loops about twelve minutes."

"Woo." Sesshomaru said un-enthusiastically while everyone began clapping to the beat. He shook his head, trying to hide a smile.

The music was enough to get everyone in the mood as they all babbled excitedly about the night to come. Kagome nestled comfortably into Inuyasha's side without realizing it, and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. She leaned her head on his broad shoulder, sighing in content while she thought back to what Sango said the previous night.

' _Leap for my chances, huh?_ ' she thought as she stared up and Inuyasha, watching his strong jawline as he bickered with Kouga and Rin. She smiled as she thought of how she'd be tucked into his side like this all night, and welcomed the thought.

' _I think I can handle this._ '

* * *

 **For the record, the baseball metaphor wasn't my idea. A friend of mine read about it somewhere and I thought it'd put Kagome's cheesy feelings into perspective, specifically when it came to making a move. So yeah, I disclaim the baseball stuff. _Siren, Tekken_ and _Inuyasha_ aren't mine, either, yada yada yada... Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **Please review!**


	9. Realizations

**Apologies for the long hiatus on this story. My laptop crashed and I lost all of my documents, and with everything I have going on, I couldn't buy a new one till recently. Thank goodness for holiday layaway.**

"I can learn to like pocky," Kagome said appreciatively, gnawing at the goodies Ayame had quipped from the back seat. They were roughly 40 minutes into the drive, and as it was mid-autumn, at was already getting dark. They were driving west, hardly able to keep up with the pink and orange sunset fading away in the horizon. Everyone was settling down with their snacks except Sesshomaru, who refused anything that could potentially distract him. Foreboding as he was, he didn't wanna cause any harm to Mushin's vehicle from carelessness.

"Yeah I kinda figured you didn't get much of Japanese treats in New York," Sango said. "I decided you should be reacquainted with it."

"Well, they sell pocky in America. But there's so many restaurants to choose from that I honestly didn't think I was missing out on much."

"What kinda food did you eat there?" Ayame asked. She always seemed to be the most inquisitive when it came to American culture.

"Mostly regular stuff that you can find here. Chicken, fish, rice, vegetables... But Mama also took me out to Italian bistros and Halal food is very common in the city. I love lamb over rice. It's my favorite food in New York."

"That sounds interesting."

"It's especially delicious."

"Hey, Kagome. You know what else is delicious?" Kouga raised a brow at her and Kagome sighed.

"Your penis?" she mumbled flatly.

"I was gonna say my balls, but that's also an acceptable answer."

"I wanna try that bodega burger that you always told me about," Sango said. "You're always telling me about all this American food that isn't really big in Japan."

"Kagome, you speak fluent English?" Rin asked and Kagome nodded. "Can you say something in English? I wanna hear."

Kagome flushed. "Uh... I have a bit of an accent when I speak English."

"You think we'll notice?" Miroku asked. "None of us speak a lick of it."

"I know how to say 'good morning'..." Sango said.

"Say penis."

"Must you make _everything_ sexual?" Sango scowled at Kouga. "Holy fuck, you're worse the Miroku."

"Can you say... 'Hi, my name is Kagome,' in English?" Rin asked politely. Kagome took a deep breath, a little embarrassed as everyone in the car except Sesshomaru looked at her eagerly, anxious to hear her speak a foreign language. She quietly spoke.

" _Hi, my name is Kagome."_

"That's so cool!" Ayame squealed as Kagome giggled in embarrassment. "How old were you when you learned how to speak English?"

Kagome thought for a moment. "I think I was seven or eight."

"Her mother had to learn it, too." Sango said. "Said Kagome picked it up easier than she did."

"Well yeah, because the younger you are, the easier it is to grow up speaking it." Rin said. "Also, Kagome probably didn't know kanji too well at such a young age. It must've been a pain to have to learn two written languages at once, especially when those two languages don't share any linguistic roots."

"It _was_ difficult, but I was lucky enough to find a homeschool teacher that was Japanese."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. "You were homeschooled?" He asked and Kagome nodded. "I didn't know that."

"I had to. I know public schools offer ESL classes, but they mostly catered to Spanish speakers." She shrugged. ( **A/N** : ESL = English Second Language)

"Yeah, good thing New York is so diverse and you were able to find a qualified teacher who happened to speak your mother language," Rin said.

"Well, we also had a personal translator for a while. Mama couldn't really practice her profession in a foreign country. Especially not if she couldn't speak the language. And she worked at a small business Japanese law firm."

"So how long did it take for you to get to a point where you considered yourself bilingual?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well my therapist really helped–" her eyes widened as she realize what she'd said and her face heated with the rush of blood when she watched Inuyasha's face turn even more quizzical. She felt everyone else's gaze on her again and Sango's lips thinned.

"My, uh, father passed away around that time." She recovered and Inuyasha let out a silent _ah_ as he remembered. Kagome was infinitely relieved at the recovery. Also, it happened to be true. "My therapist helped me to be more confident with speaking in English." ' _And speaking altogether,'_ she added as an afterthought. "I was comfortable speaking English by the time I was 9. It came pretty naturally around that time. I didn't have to really think of how to say things before I said them. Mama still had a hard time with it so I practiced with her."

"So she still doesn't really speak it well?" Rin asked.

"She speaks it well enough that she can have basic conversations, but I definitely speak it better than she does."

"I wanna hear some scary stories now!" Ayame whined imatiently.

"Hold on, we're a couple minutes away from the rest stop," Miroku said. He'd been aiding Sesshomaru on where to go with thorough instructions from the GPS. The massive vehicle was well equipped with charging outlets so their electronics never died. They approached a gas station and Rin asked everyone if they had to use the bathroom while Sesshomaru pumped a bit more gas.

"I honestly have to shit really bad," Kouga said. "I've been holding it in since this morning.

"Why didn't you go while we were at Mushin's?" Sesshomaru was annoyed as he hovered by the open door. "We probably could've avoided this stop and gotten there faster."

"Because he's an ass," Rin grumped. "Anyone else have to go?"

"I don't feel like I have to yet, but that ice coffee is gonna hit home soon enough." Ayame started to maneuver out of the car.

"I swear to God if you two sneak off to fuck around again, I'm leaving you here." Sesshomaru growled.

"They won't be doing anything because I'm gonna accompany Ayame to the ladies' room," Rin piped up. Miroku also made a move to leave the car.

"Where are you going?" Sango asked Miroku.

"I'm gonna grab an ice cream. You want anything?"

"No thanks."

"Inuyasha? Kagome? You want anything?"

Kagome shook her head, remembering her lunch that her mother packed for her. It sounded really inviting about now at the mention of food. And she didn't bring a lot of spending money. Only enough for some food, which she was saving for later at the Siren event.

"See if they have coffee crumble," Inuyasha requested and Miroku left the car.

"I guess the car isn't over packed enough," Sesshomaru mumbled. As Kagme slid her bento out from under her seat, she idly found herself wondering if he was always this melancholy, or if it was Rin's previous teasing that they hadn't had sex the night before. He was usually quiet around the group, only speaking to make sarcastic or cold comments now and then. He spoke even less than Kagome did most of the time.

"Whacha got there?" Inuyasha asked her as she nibbled on one of her pickles. She offered him a rice ball and he mumbled his appreciation. She took this moment of leisure to text her mother and let her know that she was okay and that they were almost at the guest house. Her mother's response was almost immediate, telling her she loved her and to have a good time. She nestled comfortably against the seat, feeling Inuyasha put his arm around her shoulder again once he finished his rice ball and he questioned her a bit more about her life in America. It wasn't long before she saw Miroku and the girls walking to the car with ice cream and bubble tea.

"Can I have a sip, babe?" Sango asked as her boyfriend stretched across the middle seat to hand Inuyasha his treat.

"Woman, I asked you if you wanted anything before I went in and now you wanna eat my food?"

"Girlfriend logic," Sesshomaru chuckled as he settled into the driver's seat. "You get use to it after a while."

"Take notes, Inuyasha," Sango teased. Kagome didn't miss that her eyes briefly flickered to her. "Everything you ever took pride in will be lost to you the moment you enter a committed relationship."

"And you'll never be right about anything ever again," Sesshomaru said. Inuyasha chuckled as Kouga got back into the car with a bag of chips.

"For the love of God, please no littering," Miroku said. "I have a bag up here for any garbage. Just pass it to me when you're done."

"Oh, com'ere, Inuyasha. Time to get in the bag."

"Fuck you, Kouga."

"Honestly, you guys do realize we're gonna go out to eat when we get to the house, right?" Sango said.

"I don't care, I'm starving. Besides, we won't be there for another hour." Inuyasha said. His ice cream made him shiver slightly. Kagome peered into his cup as he took a bite and he offered her some. She obliged with a small bite, flushing at the thought that she just put her mouth on the same spoon his mouth was on. The ice cream was delicious. She watched him pop the spoon back into his mouth. Sharing germs with her didn't seem to affect him in the slightest.

Why were the dumbest little things with him affecting her so much? Could she truly be so infatuated after knowing him for only 2 months? She didn't know, but the more she found herself dwelling on small details concerning him, the more she considered Sango's advice to leap for the chance to date him.

She knew she was well off with communicating in the group without getting overly anxious, but the only times she felt tight in the chest or had any feelings of nervousness or anxiety was when it came to being intimate with him, and not at all in a sexual aspect. If she maintained eye contact with him for too long, or if he used a certain tone of voice, or even if he was just sitting there, not even looking at her, not paying attention to anything in particular, her heart skipped and stuttered just looking at him. She wasn't even sure if it was her selective mutism or something else.

"You know you took a great shit when there's nothing on the toilet paper and you can sit comfortably right after."

"Kouga, what the fuck..."

"Shut up or I'll come back there and sit on your face like I did last night." He turned around to wink at Ayame as she tried to hide a smile. Everyone cringed at the comment while Kagome found herself wondering what exactly was going on between the two. Was it normal to ship one's own friends so much?

* * *

An hour or so later, the group pulled into a suburban town dotted with rather expensive looking modern homes, surrounded by a thick forest. Miroku carefully guided Sesshomaru to their destination and everyone was giddy with excitement as they unpacked the car and made their way to the front door, eager to see the inside.

The house was smaller than they expected, but not uncomfortably small; it was rather cozy. The front door opened to a foyer with a staircase directly in front of it. To the right of the staircase was a coat closet. To the left was a nice sized living room with a large plasma TV separated from the kitchen by a bar window complete with stools. The kitchen was sleek, with pale stone adorning the counter tops, and a small island counter. Past the kitchen was a full bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.

The upstairs was much smaller. At the top of the stairs was a loft, with two twin beds in the small space to the left and the only bedroom to the right, which was probably smaller than the kitchen and only housed a full sized bed, two night stands, and a small plasma TV. All the walls and furnishings were pale creams, peaches and baby blues, giving it a beach condo feel. The house was neatly decorated with fake bamboo plants, landscapes and still life paintings.

Everyone unpacked their bags and divided up the sleeping areas. One of the two couches pulled out into a bed, which Ayame and Kagome would share. Kouga claimed the other couch and Inuyasha agreed to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor, since he was probably much too tall for the couch. The couples would sleep upstairs, with Sango and Miroku in the single beds and Rin and Sesshomaru in the bedroom.

"Bet any amount of money they'll fuck in it." Kouga said when he peeked into their room. The girls were downstairs, planning a fun night in the hot tub when they got back from the event. Rin had rudely shut out Kouga's suggestion that everyone get in the hot tub together, saying that no one had a bathing suit. When he rebutted that they didn't need bathing suits to bathe together, she slapped him up he back of the head, causing Sesshomaru to burst into a rare fit of laughter.

Miroku chuckled. "I'm gonna push the beds together so Sango and I can have a super bed." He stood back and speculated the sitting area. He'd have to do a bit of arranging as there was a table with a lamp and some books on it separating the beds.

"Have you ever slept in a bed with Sango?"

"Not a bed... I fell asleep on her lap on her couch once. Her dad almost killed me."

Kouga grinned a big, wolfish grin. "I hope for your sake that you get laid."

"Not likely with you guys around," Miroku raised a brow.

"I don't care what Rin says; me and Ayame are getting out to screw around at some point and she can't stop us. We all know she's gonna screw Sess tonight, so where's the fairness in that?"

"Why are you so determined to sleep with Ayame every time we go out?" Inuyasha asked. He was sitting on one of the twin beds.

"Because that girl's like my favorite restaurant. No matter what other foods I eat, she'll always be the one I go back to."

Miroku narrowed his eyes. "You still like her, don't you?"

Kouga snorted. "I love that girl. I'm just not quite ready to settle down. I'm about to turn 18 and I can use some time to myself during my prime."

"You think that just because you're young, you shouldn't be in a serious relationship?"

"You're a fucking idiot. What if she decides she doesn't wanna stick around and play games with you anymore?" Inuyasha interjected. "One of these days she's gonna realize her worth and stop waiting around for you. You have an amazing, beautiful girl that throws herself at you every day and you shoot her down because you wanna party all the damn time."

"Just because I've made my choice, doesn't mean I can't keep looking at the menu." Kouga snorted.

"Well it's not only your choice. If you're taking too long to make a decision, she might start looking at other options and find something she likes more than you."

"You're one to talk. I haven't seen you trying to ask Kagome out."

"True, but I'm not fucking around on Kagome. Not that she's mine to fuck around on, but I've made my choice and I don't wanna lose her through getting distracted by temporary-ass, common females."

"I wanna be there when you ask her out. Her reaction will be priceless," Miroku tried to stifle a smile and Inuyasha shook his head.

"Well she's so shy, I don't want her to feel pressured, or like she's being put on the spot. Plus, I don't think she's quite ready for a relationship just yet. Seems like she wants to get to know me more before then, and that's understandable." He lowered his voice as the beds were right against the balcony hovering over the living room, and he didn't want anyone downstairs to overhear their conversation.

"Yeah the shyness could definitely be a problem. Better hope she doesn't freeze up and stop talking to you." Miroku's eyes widened as he realized what he said and Inuyasha raised a brow at his friend's expression.

"Freeze up?"

"Uh, like... you know, when people get so embarrassed they can't move?" Unsure of what else to say to fill the awkward silence, he whisked past his two friends and went downstairs to join the others.

Inuyasha peeked over the balcony behind the two beds. He spotted Kagome's green jacket huddled around her little self and she threw her head back and laughed at something Rin said. She was quite a sight when she laughed. It was plainly his favorite thing to see these days. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Kouga clear his throat and walk away.

In a way, he felt he was probably as bad as Kouga. Not in the sense that he and Kagome acted like a couple while he tried to fool around with other girls. But they were in a situation where it was obvious to everyone–including each other–that they liked each other, yet neither of them made a move to be official. Kagome always seemed to believe that time was a measure of love and intimacy. And seeing as they'd only known each other for a couple of months, it was, by her standards, much too soon for a relationship.

But he felt that if neither of them acted soon on their closeness and longing to be together, it would evaporate. And he knew deep down that if one of them was to establish some type of romantic relationship, it'd have to be him. It was obvious to everyone that Kagome was shy, almost even unnaturally shy sometimes, but he was flustered as well.

Something wasn't right, though. He felt deep down that there was a big hole in his connection to her, something that he couldn't grasp. He knew that she was shy and quite introverted for the majority of her life. A new piece of the puzzle clicked into place when she said she was homeschooled. He wasn't really surprised by that, given she her misanthropy, but the counseling was a bit of a shock to him. Was it really only because of her father's death? Was that really the only reason? Maybe that was why she was so quiet. Maybe her father's death traumatized her.

No. She'd told him that she originally moved to America because her mother had a good opportunity to work there. Now she said her mother worked for a lawyer. Was that really a good opportunity that was worth moving countries for? And why take only Kagome? The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. Kagome was keeping something from him. He didn't know what, and as much as he wanted to push it, he doubted she'd be comfortable talking about it. Maybe he'd try to find to find an opportunity to get Sango alone and ask her. She'd kept in contact with Kagome her entire life. She had to know something.

He was pulled out of his reverie when Rin called everyone to get back into the car, as they were settled in the house and ready to go out and eat and see what awaited them at the horror event. Kagome caught the pensive expression on Inuyasha's face and raised a brow at him, but didn't comment.

* * *

"It's been a while since I had high quality sushi," Kagome said dreamily, rubbing her sated belly as everyone stuffed themselves into the car.

"They were not serving _bear_ in there, you asshole." Ayame yelled at Kouga.

"I was only teasing, holy shit."

"I hit a bear once, when I was learning how to drive." Sesshomaru said and Inuyasha laughed at the memory.

"Did it total that car?" Sango asked.

"Barely... No pun intended," he said as Kagome and Ayame started laughing. "I was only driving at thirty kilometers per hour. I was practicing night driving on a road surrounded by woods, and it just walked out onto the road. I slowed down in time that I didn't really hit it that bad. He got knocked over, but he got up and walked away like nothing happened."

"I remember mom being scared that it was gonna be angry and try to flip the car." Inuyasha said.

"Yeah, that bear really gave zero fucks," Kouga said.

Ayame clapped her hands together impatiently. "So I'm ready for some scary shit. Someone tell me a scary story or something to get me in the mood."

"You were in the mood last night..."

"Not _that_ mood, Kouga..."

"I did look into the game a bit and I have to admit, it looks good. I'm excited to see a replica of the village." Inuyasha shifted next to Kagome to pull his phone out of his pocket then pulled her against him again as he opened it. "I looked at some of the designs for the Shibito and holy shit... they're like... human-insect hybrids. It's disgusting."

Rin grinned. "I really like the Shibito brain. It looks like a heap of shit in a wheelchair."

"Really?" Miroku's brow went up. "The Shibito brain I saw was a nurse with maggots coming out of the orifices on her face. Giant maggots. Speaking of maggots, have you seen the Shibito maggot?"

Inuyasha shuddered. "Yes, and it's a gooey fusion of different human body parts."

"And a giant titty with a hyper-extended nipple." Rin giggled.

"Miroku, you can make a Siren themed hentai room for your cousin." Ayame said and everyone in the car laughed except Kagome. She was at a loss.

"Oh my God, Kagome you have to hear this." Sango barely got the words out as she was laughing too hard. "Miroku, tell her the story, please. It's still in theme with horror, trust me."

Miroku rolled his eyes, but he was grinning as he turned around to face Kagome fully. She realized Inuyasha had been tracing his thumb in circles around her should as they leaned heavily into each other.

"I have a cousin, Hachi, who's in college and he has his own place and stuff. He _seems_ like a normal, well rounded person from a distance. But I went to his house at one point, which he had a roommate that I was cool with. The place had three bedrooms, one of which was rented to Hachi's roommate, and another room that Hachi never really let anyone into. When I asked him where the bathroom was, he told me down the hall and to the right. Unfortunately, he has a bad sense of direction because the room on the right was his private room, but I was curious as hell to see it so I didn't say anything.

"When I got _in_ there, though–" Miroku paused as his eyes widened at the memory. "This sick bastard had all hentai stuff in this room and I mean weird shit that I hadn't known about until that point. Here I was, a 13 or 14 years old, looking at pocket pussies, hentai posters, hentai body pillows, hentai action figures. And everything was covered in cum."

"Eh..." Kagome furrowed her brow. Everyone else was in stitches.

"Yeah. The pillows were stained yellow and the room had this _smell_ to it that I can only compare to semen and feet. It was bad. And he had these really _realistic_ looking sex dolls, one of which he'd fucked the leg off."

"And what did you do when you saw this...?"

"I hauled ass outta there. Hachi was so embarrassed, I actually felt bad for him, but Jesus. And that's not even the worst part. He told me a couple months ago that he was looking to sell collectibles online and wanted to know if I was interested before he sold anything. He was trying to sell his action figures, and I _saw_ the fucking hentai action figures that were in that room, and they looked yellowish. I asked him why, even though I already knew the answer. I just wanted to see how he'd respond. He tried to tell me that he spilled wax on them and I'm like 'no, you didn't...'"

"He was trying to sell collectibles that he ejaculated on?" Kagome was taken aback.

"Yeah, it also didn't help that he smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day. Hachi has a lot of disgusting habits."

"Ejaculating isn't disgusting," Inuyasha interjected.

"It is when you're cumming all over the fucking house and trying to sell your potential baby-covered shit online," Kouga said. "This sick mother fucker likes to cum on pillows and dolls. Every man has that one thing that he likes to cum on, but damn."

"You mean a vagina?" Rin rolled her eyes.

"Well, obviously, smart ass. But even as sexually active as you and Sess are, I'm sure he masturbates. All men like to finish somewhere particular, like in a certain chair or a sock or a shirt."

"...And we're talking about sex again," Ayame said. "Must be a theme with us."

"Why not?" Sango asked. "We have 8 people in the age of raging hormones, 4 girls, 4 boys, everyone but Kagome has pubes."

"Actually..." Ayame gave Kouga a devilish look. "Let's just say Kouga didn't turn down the bet and got a little carried away."

Inuyasha groaned. "Oh Jesus, I _really_ don't wanna see that. I'll just take your word for it, Ayame."

"Don't worry, Inuyasha. I promise I'll flash you at some point tonight before you go to bed."

"Let's not."

About 10 minutes later, the car slowed to a stop on a road filled with cars playing loud music. By the looks of it, they were all waiting to get into the parking lot of the heavily wooded area. They were all teens, young adults, and some older adults in the other cars. Everyone was talking excitedly, knowing they were close. Even Kagome was starting to feel excited for the first time since they'd left Tokyo, rather than feeling nervous.

When they closed in on the parking lot–which was just a big clearing in the woods–they were met with college students in bright yellow vests guiding everyone on where to park. The large clearing was adorned with food stands, porta-potties, cardboard cut outs of in-game characters and monsters, Siren cosplayers, and carnival-style game stands. There was a 2 story building with the words "Saiga Hospital" in bold letters across the banner hanging from the roof, a hut-like structure that served as the entrance to the "Infection" obstacle course, and a wooden fence that had a banner for the haunted hayride.

"I hope you guys are ready," Sesshomaru said darkly, staring at Kagome through the rear view mirror and she quailed under his gaze. "This is it."


	10. Blank

Sesshomaru smoothly rolled the large vehicle into the parking space he was directed into. When everyone exited the car, they all immediately linked up with their partners. Inuyasha offered his elbow to Kagome, smirking playfully at her and she giggled as she looped her arm through his. She noted with interest that Kouga was holding Ayame's hand, like the other couples.

Rin directed everyone to a line where they showed their VIP tickets and received and invisible stamp that could only be observed under UV light. The stamps were for the discounts on food and games, since the VIP tickets were only necessary for the horror events. They decided to start off with the least scary attraction: the hayride, and work their way over the the hospital, which was on the furthest side of the clearing from the stamp booth. Miroku originally wanted to start with mini games, claiming he wasn't in the mood yet, and everyone teased him for being scared. Even Kagome.

"If you're gonna be scared at least own it, Miroku," she jested, much to everyone's amusement.

While they stood in line for the hayride, Kagome conversed with Ayame and Sango. They were planning a relaxing night in the hot tub when they got back, and Kagome was all for it. Being naked with her female friends wasn't an issue to her, and as cold as she was, a hot bath was exactly what she wanted that moment. She was a bit hesitant at first, given Kouga would be in the same house as them, but Sango vowed to mutilate him if he tried peeping on them. Also, Inuyasha was quite adamant about Kouga and his extended interactions with Kagome, since he seemed to be intent on making her uncomfortable.

She couldn't help but be hyper aware of Inuyasha against her, even when he wasn't talking to her. He was mostly talking with Rin and Miroku about the Siren game, but he kept his arm draped over her little shoulders and held her against him the whole time they stood in line, transferring his warmth to her. It felt somehow more intimate than it did when they were in the car. The closed space forced their bodies to remain flush as it was, but out in the open it felt like a more endearing gesture. More... protective. She shyly reciprocated, wrapping her arm around his waist.

When they got to the front of the line, Sango requested a glow stick for Kagome and carefully draped it over her head. As the trailer finally pulled out of a clearing in the trees, everyone began to cheer in excitement while the previous group exited the car. Some of them were laughing and talking excitedly, while others looked like they were spooked. Kagome noted that the trailer was covered in hay and scattered hay bales for passengers to sit on. One of the workers placed a small stool before the trailer and gestured for the next group to settle into the trailer. As they moved along in the line, he punched a hole in their tickets over the hayride stub.

Kagome made a bit of a show struggling to get on the trailer, and Sango and Inuyasha helped hoist her up and she settled between them, embarrassed. The group had almost unanimously agreed to sit right and the front of the trailer. The only exception was Kagome. Inuyasha was on her left, and Sango and Miroku were to her right, with Miokru sitting right at the edge of the trailer. Opposite them was Rin closest to the edge, followed by Sesshomaru, Kouga and Ayame.

Kagome winced as Kouga started throwing handfuls of hay at the friends opposite him. The worker dealing with the tickets firmly told him to stop, as it was against the rules and warned him not to do it again or he'd be kicked out. Once the entire trailer was full, he stood on the edge and explained the rules of the ride, which were mostly common sense. No hitting the actors, no food or drink, no throwing hay at other passengers or out of the trailer. Passengers who weren't wearing a glow stick would be susceptible to be dragged from the trailer and into woods, only temporarily. Kagome gripped her glow stick, infinitely relieved. When the announcement was done he unexpectedly blew an air horn, causing everyone to jump.

Ayame pulled out her phone to record the ride. She previously stated that she'd be taking a lot of pictures and videos and posting them online. Kagome wasn't into social media, apart from their group chat, and wasn't keen on having her picture taken. Not that she was embarrassed of how she looked, but she didn't want to be seen online by a bunch of strangers. So she flipped her hair over her left shoulder and pulled her hood up, zipping her jacket all the way to hide the lower part of her face.

"Are you cold?" she heard Inuyasha ask and she nodded her head as he wrapped his arm around her and unexpectedly pulled her into his lap, hugging her close to his chest. She flushed as she heard Kouga and Rin jeering at them and felt Inuyasha chuckling against her.

The ride started out quietly for the first few minutes. They were riding along what looked like an old village on the outskirts. Small huts dotted the forest through the thick brush and there seemed to be a thick fog that wasn't there before. It was completely dark, the only light coming from the tractor and the occasional cellphone camera flash. The only sounds heard were the frantic whispered exchanges of the passengers and the eerie music played over a sound system through the trees. Everyone bristled with tension when they saw flashing lights in the distance along the path they were on. As they approached the lights, they realized it was a police car that looked like it'd been in a terrible accident. Kagome's heart pounded as the trailer slowly eased past the scene and the flashing lights disappeared in the distance.

Suddenly a loud gunshot was heard from almost directly behind her and she covered her ears and screamed, leaning heavily on Inuyasha and burying her face in his chest and he laughed loudly at her.

"Don't hide your face, Kagome!" Rin yelled at her and Kagome felt her ears heat. "They need to see that bitch stick or you'll get dragged into the forest!"

" _ **Kagome!**_ " she heard a loud, demonic voice calling her name and she turned around to see a Shibito police officer shooting fake bullets and running in a wild, frantic step that only a madman would understand. His skin was a sickly grayish color, and his eyes were completely black, leaking fake blood. She guessed he was wearing some sort of voice mechanism that made him sound choppy and sinister. After a few moments of franatically chasing the trailer, he ran into the woods and disappeared.

The ride continued in this fashion, passing by imitated scenes of the Siren game. Different kinds of Shibito climbed onto the trailer to scare the passengers. At one point, a female village Shibito got right down in Kagome's face, caressing her glow stick and smiling wickedly at her. Her mouth was filled with a dark liquid that oozed out from between her teeth when she opened it. Kouga was howling the loudest out of everyone in the trailer, his voice echoing off the trees, and the Shibito turned around and grabbed both of his ankles, laughing maniacally as she dragged him off the car. Kouga screamed and tried to kick at her, when two more Shibito–one of which was a child–grabbed him by his arms and legs and pulled him into the woods. Everyone laughed at his ashen face as he returned to the trailer a few moments later.

"How was that?" Inuyasha asked Kagome as he helped her off the trailer. She grinned broadly, feeling oddly content that she 'survived' her first horror game. Not to mention, how much fun she had. And seeing Kouga scared out of his wits was well worth it.

"That was actually really fun." She told him.

"Ready for the obstacle course?"

She clutched her glow stick. "I hope so."

"That won't do you any good in there, Pip Squeak," Kouga sneered. "Stick or not, they're gonna run at you to rip that flag off."

Rin rolled her eyes. "You should be the one who's scared to go in there, Kouga. We all saw your face when that lady and that kid handled you."

The others laughed at Kouga's sheepish expression as he huffed stubbornly. They all continued to tease him while they stood in line for the _Infection_ obstacle course. Only six people were allowed in at a time, so Rin and Sesshomaru opted to go first and wait for the others at the exit. Everyone was given a white belt with three Velcro flags attached to it. The object of the game was to navigate through the obstacle course and avoid the Shibito to make it to the end with as many flags as possible. The female college student explaining the game was wearing a Shibito nurse costume that exposed an ample amount of cleavage, and Kouga didn't bother to be discreet as he looked her over. Kagome caught Ayame rolling her eyes in frustration.

Kagome felt herself becoming excited as everyone assembled and fastened their belts when they neared the front of the line. She had more fun than she thought she would in this kind of setting, and was eager for the next two events, especially if she got to see Kouga freak out again.

"My strategy is to tuck two of my flags into my pants and leave the last one dangling in front of me so if the Shibito try to grab it, I can sue them for sexual harassment."

Inuyasha cocked his head to the side as he stared at Miroku. "You're really special, you know that?"

Miroku pretended to choke back tears as he suddenly clasped Inuyasha in a tight bear hug. "I think you're really special, too," he whispered shakily into his friends ear and–much to everyone's amusement–kissed him on the cheek. "God, I love you."

"Umm..." Inuyasha sputtered.

"Something you wanna share with the class, Miroku?" Sango had her hands on her hips, a mockingly annoyed look on her face. Miroku turned around and swept her up in his arms, off her feet and kissed her loudly on her cheeks over and over as she giggled uncontrollably. Kagome, Inuyasha and Ayame joined in laughing at her embarrassed expression while Kouga huffed.

"You guys are whack." He huffed and Inuyasha cocked a brow at him.

"You're just butt hurt because everyone saw your pussy today."

"Fuck you."

"At least he shaved it this time." Miroku wiggled his eyebrows, his arms still securely around Sango.

"I wasn't scared, dammit!" Kouga roared. "I was startled. You would be too."

"Uh huh." Inuyasha was grinning ear to ear. "You screamed even more than Kagome did."

" _Kagome_ –" he said her name like it was a dirty word, "–didn't have to _worry_ about getting dragged off the ride because she's a little chicken shit that had to wear the fucking magical glow stick so these sick bastards couldn't touch her."

"Then maybe you should've gotten one, too."

"I'm not scared like she is."

"Doesn't seem that way."

"Let's see her go on the hayride without the glow stick then."

"Why don't you leave her alone?" Sango cut in. "Like, why do you feel the need to bully her all the damn time?"

Kouga towered over Sango. "Why does she have to act like this innocent, shy little wimp who can't do anything when you're not around?"

"Kouga, get the fuck out of my face." Sango raised her voice.

"Because _once again,_ Kagome is standing there all quiet because she doesn't know how to fucking stand up for herself. She needs _Sango dearest_ here to speak up for her all the fucking time."

"Okay, okay, enough." Miroku said as he and Inuyasha stepped between them.

"Do you have a problem with me, Kouga?" Kagome glared at him. Kouga's head snapped in her direction and his eyes glazed with anger.

"Yeah, you always have to be the fucking center of attention, pretending to be all shy so people are curious about you. I'm not fucking stupid. All you want is attention." He was leaning down to get in her face and Kagome felt her hands trembling in anger and hurt. Where was this vehemence coming from? Was it rooted in him being ashamed of his reaction to the hayride? She guessed that was his issue, and she was used to him being a sore loser, but was surprised and irritated to have him invading her personal space. Right when she was about to shove him back, he was grabbed by Inuyasha and Miroku.

"You need to chill the fuck out, Kouga." Inuyasha growled. "It's really not that deep."

"Kagome, he gets like this when he feels like he's losing an argument or being put on the spot," Ayame whispered to her. "Please don't get upset, he doesn't mean it. He's just really stupid when he's angry."

"I can see that," Kagome's voice was hushed and shook slightly as Ayame hugged her.

"I bet any amount of money he'll apologize later." She winked and Kagome tried to fight a smile. It was hard to be upset with Ayame around, but she was still a little shaken by her spat with Kouga. There was really no reason for him to get the riled up over a little glow stick, so she chose to ignore him until he decided to apologize. Sango and Ayame sensed her distress and kept her busy with conversation while Inuyasha and Miroku tried to assuage Kouga.

Once they were called into the obstacle course, Kagome's heart started pounding again. The course was cleverly set up in a way that they wouldn't be a able to stray from the path. The sides of the path were blocked off by caution tape, walls, furniture debris, and of course, Shibito. It went through houses, a church, part of the forest, and a makeshift coalmine.

Kouga eventually came around and started acting his loud, goofy self again, assisting Kagome and Ayame when necessary. Kagome thought it to be really sweet watching Ayame try to keep up with Kouga, since he was holding her hand almost the whole time they were in there, only releasing it if he absolutely had to. It was amazing the affect she had on him. He was... less prone to be a jerk with Ayame around, in Kagome's terms.

They made it through most of the course with no "casualties" until they reached the coalmine and Inuyasha smacked his forehead off a stalagmite and was dazed for a second as a Shibito sporting a mining hat and a pickax, snatched one of his flags. Kagome and Ayame laughed hysterically at the look on his face when the Shibito scurried off with his flag.

"These bastards play dirty," he grinned as he ran to catch up to the others.

"Sucks to be tall, doesn't it?" Kagome teased.

After some time, they were nearing the end of the course. Kagome recognized the hut in the distance and was glad. She was getting tired because the obstacle course was truly that, as a lot of areas required them to jump over objects on the ground, crawl through small spaces, and even climb ladders and terrain.

At one point Kagome tripped over a set of mine car tracks and was met with a Shibito twisted in a horrible position. She was bent backwards, as if in a bridge formation, but where her stomach should've been was replaced by a large, insect-like shell and her head was contorted upright, staring up at Kagome. Her voice mechanism made her sound like she was making clicking noises like a giant beetle. Kagome stumbled a bit to stand up as the horribly disfigured Shibito charged at her like a bug. Like a spider.

She felt herself being swept off the ground completely and her legs were held securely as she was hoisted over someone's shoulder and they started running. All she could see was the ground and two long legs clad in jeans and a firm backside moving at an alarming speed. His flag that previously dangled from his backside was no longer there, and she heard his deep, exerted breathing. Once they reached the clearing in the hut, he set her down and she looked behind him to see the others in the distance trying to catch up. The spider Shibito was also in the distance, crawling at a frightening speed, given her position.

Ayame tripped on the same track Kagome had, and Miroku and Kouga hurriedly grabbed her arms and hauled her up, running with her until she gained her footing again.

"Leave no man behind!" Kouga was yelling frantically at Miroku, who started laughing.

If that wasn't a sign that he was scared shitless, Kagome didn't know what was.

They all scurried through the hut when suddenly the floor started vibrating and a horde of Shibito broke through the walls, grabbing at the nearest person: Kagome. Kouga shrieked loudly as he was grabbed at by a massive mutated Shibito and it laughed as it tore one of his flags free. Kagome giggled and screamed as she tried to run out of the hut, but she felt the strain of her belt when one of her flags got ripped off. She tailed Sango and Kouga outta there, and the others were close behind, panting and laughing. Kagome bent over in front of Rin and Sesshomaru to place her hands on her knees as she panted to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Inuyasha asked Kagome and she looked confused. "You fell pretty hard in there."

She became aware of a slight stinging sensation on her right knee and hand, and instinctively looked at her hand. There were scrapes along the heel of her palm, but it was nothing serious. "Just a few scratches. I'm fine. Really."

"How'd you guys like it?" Rin was clinging to Sesshommaru. "Anyone make it out with all flags?"

"Sango and I did." Miroku said triumphantly. "Kouga lost one."

"Ayame lost two," Kouga rolled his eyes.

"I only lost one," Inuyasha said. "But it's only because I hit my head in that damn cave."

"Oh my God, so did Sesh!" Rin laughed. "I guess being a jolly green giant ain't all that it's cracked up to be, eh?" She playfully nudged her boyfriend and he tried to hide a smile.

"I think you owe Kagome an apology, Kouga," Ayame said. "She may have lost a flag, but she held her own in there."

Sango crossed her arms. "That she did. She was ahead of us a good time we were in there. So much for needing Sango dearest, huh?"

"Don't tell me he went picking a fight because he was scared." Rin rolled her eyes.

"With Kagome of all people?" Sesshomaru cocked a brow and smirked at Kouga as he turned red in embarrassment.

"Yeah, I was only testing her to see if she'd boss up and take off that stupid glow stick but I guess not." He snorted. " I said some things I shouldn't have, but that doesn't make up for her being a chicken."

Kagome raised a brow in response and summoned all of her will to not smirk at Kouga as she wordlessly removed her glow stick and randomly tossed it to the side and leaned toward him, keeping her chin turned up defiantly.

"Let's see if you're ready for the hotel," she said in a quiet, yet clear and daring voice and everyone _ooo'_ d in response to her audacity.

"Looks like Kagome's got balls tonight, Kouga." Sesshomaru was full-on grinning now and Kouga sputtered a bit as everyone heckled him.

Inuyasha raised a brow at Kouga. "Funny how you like to pick on her for being the 'weakest link,'" he used his fingers as air quotations, "yet you reached an octave beyond any soprano I've ever heard."

"That was _you_?" Sesshomaru and Rin asked in unison before they started laughing.

"We thought that was Kagome!" Rin barely choked out.

The final event of the night was the largely anticipated hospital. For how long the line was, it actually moved rather quickly since such large amounts of people were allowed per group. Once they got closer to the entrance, they realized that the it was staged like a hospital waiting room with a front desk and seating. There was a staircase that led upstairs, which is where the game would start, and the group members would have to work their way down to the basement to exit successfully.

The hospital wasn't as simple of a walk through as the obstacle course would be. Each time a new game started, staff members would block off certain hallways, stairways and doors, so that the path to the goal in the basement would be different each time. Group members were allowed to split up, but were heavily advised not to travel through the hospital alone. If someone was caught by a Shibito, they'd be escorted from the hospital back into the waiting room. Members that made it successfully to the goal would be able to escape the basement.

The bonus award was that if an entire group made it through successfully in under five minutes, they'd be given access to redo an attraction of their choosing.

One nurse guided the group up to the top of the steps and gave them a run down of the rules. Kagome's heart pounded and she was gripping Inuyasha's arm so tightly he winced a bit. Once the door was open and they were let inside, they were met with a very dimly light hallway that looked like another office. There was a small room to the right which was blocked off by a light blue curtain. Rin and Sesshomaru took the lead in the group, and Kagome internally admitted that she was in awe of her friend. Rin was almost as small as she was, but nothing seemed to phase her. Not even the formidable Sesshomaru glare.

At the end of the hallway was an elevator, which was currently running. It opened and a Shibito nurse stepped out, facing away from the group. She wasn't dressed suggestively as the nurses outside were. Her frame was completely covered in bloody, filthy scrubs and her hair was fastened in a bun. She turned and walked into the room on her left and once she disappeared, the group exhaled in unison. Inuyasha had loosened Kagome's grip on his elbow to hold her hand as they quietly made their way forward. Miroku and Sango linked up with Sesshomaru and Rin as they went into the room with the blue curtain. There were four other people in the game that weren't a part of their group, and they made their way into the room across from the desk and disappeared. Kouga and Ayame were grouped with Inuyasha and Kagome as Inuyasha led them cross the room and down a different hallway and froze. The Shibito from earlier was standing at the end of the hallway, which they discovered went to a set of stairs to the lower floor.

"Someone has to distract her," Ayame whispered.

"No shit, Sherlock," Kouga growled. "You volunteering?"

"This way," Kagome pointed to another door just to the left of the hallway. She led the group into a surgical prep room. Just as they entered, a bright light suddenly turned on, revealing a body on the table. His stomach was torn open, revealing his innards and his head suddenly jerked up as he screamed in agony before going limp again. Kagome and Kouga shrieked and Inuyasha clamped his hand over Kagome's mouth as they heard footsteps in the hallway coming toward them.

" ** _Is someone there?_** " It was the nurse's demonic voice and the group panicked.

"Behind this curtain!" Inuyasha hissed as he aggressively dragged Kagome to stand behind a blue curtain similar to the one in the other room. Kouga and Ayame were close behind them as they heard the nurse enter the room. Her shoes clicked on the floor as she walked around the desk toward the curtain. Kagome peeked through the gap in the curtain, watching the nurse as she approached, and tugged Inuyasha's hand, urging him to inch toward the other side of the curtain. Once the Shibito walked around, they could make a run for it and go down the stairs. Inuyasha, realizing her plan, grabbed Kouga's wrist and pointed with his chin toward the other side of the curtain at Kouga's confused look. Kouga and Ayame nodded in understanding as they all tiptoed to the left as quietly as they could.

" ** _I know you're there..._** " the nurse said hoarsely as she peeked behind the curtain and tried to grab at Ayame, but they ran for the door. The nurse let out a horrible screeching sound as she started to chase them, but Kouga slammed the door shut as soon as Ayame exited, and they took off down the stairs.

" ** _Time to prep for surgery!_** " The nurse screamed and the man on the table shrieked in agony again, fueling the group to run faster. There was another staircase for them to run down, but it was blocked off by an oddly placed alcove so they made their way to the other side of the level. There was another nurse pushing an empty wheelchair into a room with red light coming out of it and Ayame took the lead with her back to the wall as she peaked into the red room. The nurse was rummaging through a desk of sorts and Ayame scurried to the other side of the door and peaked in again. The nurse still wasn't looking at the door and she waved the others over.

They reached a bend in the hallways and saw another nurse briefly looking down the hall in their direction before she turned and headed around the corner. The door to the other staircase was right at the end of the hallway and they rushed toward it. Just as Ayame opened the door, the Shibito from the red room came charging down the hallway at them with her arms outstretched as she screamed with that horrible voice mechanism.

Kouga harshly shoved at the others until they all gathered in the staircase and he once again shut the door in the nurse's face.

At the bottom of the stairs was the elevator and the group froze. The door was open, and they could hear the Shibito giggling from inside it, along with the sound of metal on metal scratching. The base of the staircase was at a corner, and they had the option to go straight and sneak past the elevator, or go left down the hallway. They opted for the left, but at the next bend in the hallway, it was blocked off by a rusty set of lockers. Kagome's heart fell into her stomach when the door of the one locker started banging loudly, but Inuyasha's hand was over her mouth before she could scream again. He was whispering quietly into her ear, trying to get her to relax and he slowly turned her around to go back the other way, only to find that Kouga and Ayame had disappeared. Kagome noticed that they were no longer there and her whole body went cold as she trembled.

"Where the hell did they take off to now?" Inuyasha growled under his breath and Kagome paled as she heard the locker behind them burst open and a Shibito jumped out, crawling toward them. Inuyasha hurriedly whisked Kagome back around the corner to the staircase and they crouched down behind the wall in the stairwell. He carefully scooted her behind him so he could peek into the hallway and Kagome kept her hands clamped over her mouth as she heard the soft padding of the crawling nurse right by the door. The nurse stopped, looking around the corner by the elevator and turned around and went back down the hall to the locker, having not seen anyone.

Kagome released a breath she didn't realize she was holding and started taking short, rapid breaths. She was hyperventilating badly, and she needed to calm down before she passed out. Inuyasha noticed the extreme change in her breathing and turned around and tucked her hair behind her ears, his expression softening.

"Jesus, you're so pale. You okay?" he asked as quietly as he could. Kagome realized she was shaking and she couldn't bring herself to speak. She didn't know if she was choked up from her anxiety, or from a deep sense of fear and dread. Maybe it was both. She couldn't get a word out so she shakily shook her head and Inuyasha unexpectedly pulled her into a hug. Her heart hammered loudly in her chest.

"It's okay, it's just a game. No one is really gonna harm you. I'm here." He whispered soothingly, rubbing her back. She wanted to wrap her arms around him but she found it difficult to move, to speak, to do anything. She took deep breaths, trying to relax. She melted into his embrace, hit by an unexpected wave of euphoria. He felt amazing wrapped around her. She felt so safe and warm with him that it was almost overwhelming. Too overwhelming. She was torn between being flustered from his intimate gesture, and gripping fear from being in an unfamiliar situation with being in an attractive boy's arms, and being surrounded by darkness and horror.

Right when she felt she might be starting to calm down, she was overcome by a new, but familiar feeling. She felt like her body was heating up inside, and she felt like crying, but the tears were locked up inside her, causing a weird pressure in her chest and throat, choking her speech. The pressure was building to the point that it was becoming difficult to breath. Her head felt heavy, and her hands started trembling. But she couldn't move.

Suddenly, she heard another set of steps coming down the stairs and looked over Inuyasha's shoulder to see Miroku and Sango looking at them with their eyebrows raised.

"Well well well..." Miroku smirked and Sango stifled a laugh as Inuyasha released Kagome and turned around at the sound of his friend's voice.

"What are you guys doing here?" he raised a brow.

Sango rolled her eyes. "Oh you know, just trying to find the goal like everyone else. Looks like we're interrupting something so we'll just slide around and let you two be..."

"I was comforting her. Kagome needs to get out of here. She's having a bad anxiety attack. She doesn't look too good."

"What?" Sango's eyes widened as she got on the floor and took Kagome's hands. "You okay?"

' _Yes,'_ Kagome wanted to say. Her eyes popped open wide as she realized she hadn't said it out loud. She couldn't say it out loud. Her throat had a lump in it. A barrier, one that prevented any words from coming out. It prevented any sound at all, aside from her erratic breathing.

"Where's Ayame and Kouga?" Miroku asked.

"No idea..." Inuyasha was staring at Kagome with a confused expression.

"Talk to me, Kagome." Sango urged. "You look like you just saw a ghost. Do you want me to call your mother?"

Kagome shook her head.

"Talk, please." Sango begged, her voice shaking now, too. "Can you speak?"

Kagome shook her head again, her chest tightening inside. Oh no. Not here. Not like this. Sango's breath hitched.

"We need to get her out of here." Her voice was firm. "Now."

She pulled Kagome to her feet and walked into the hallway, past the elevator. The Shibito in the elevator didn't notice them, much to Kagome's relief. She looked past a dark gap in the hallway, so dark that it was complete darkness from whatever was on the other side. Sango urged Miroku to go ahead and see what was there, and he obliged, putting his fear of the impending Shibito aside for the safety of his friend. He wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with Kagome, but he knew by Sango's reaction that she was in bad shape. He felt along the darkness and was met with a wall. He traced his palms along the wall, feeling it bend into a corner. Just as he reached around the corner, he saw a bright pink light along the floor. It was a doorway, with the word "Goal" across the threshold in bright yellow letters.

"In here, quickly!" he whispered frantically and heard footsteps approaching him quickly, but was suddenly grabbed on his chest by his shirt.

" _ **Kiritoyaerenzo!**_ " It was a Shibito and he was promptly dragged through the darkness and down a path opposite the one he came from and up a set of stairs. It was the waiting room, the entrance to the game. He noticed Kouga and Ayame sitting on one of the benches. Ayame was smiling sheepishly at him.

"Welcome back," she giggled and Miroku grimaced.

' _Ah dammit,'_ he thought. ' _I was so close, too._ '

* * *

Back in the basement, Inuyasha and Sango rushed Kagome into the dark hallway and toward the goal before the Shibito came back. They pushed through the door and were back outside, met by a staff member congratulating them for making it through the hospital. Sango promptly ignored him and rushed past him to sit Kagome on the grass. Rin and Sesshomaru were there as well.

"Hah!" Rin gloated. "I told you Kouga wouldn't make it through!"

"Ayame and Miroku are in the waiting room too, then." Sesshomaru added camly.

"Five out of eight, not bad. We should all celebrate!"

"Not now, guys." Inuyasha said sternly, watching Sango try to calm down their friend. Kagome wasn't responding to anything Sango was saying now, only staring blankly at her, causing Sango to get more worked up. Sesshomaru and Rin raised their brows at the worried look on Sango's face and the trembling in her voice and moved forward. Rin knelt on the grass next to Sango.

"Is she okay?" Sesshomaru pondered quietly.

"Kagome? What's wrong?" Rin asked softly. Suddenly, Sango turned to glare at her.

"Go get the others," she demanded. "Get them in the car. Tell them we're leaving. _Now!_ "

They all jumped at the sharpness of her voice and Sango glared after Rin and Sesshomaru as they disappeared to get the others. Rin remaining quiet and Sesshomaru obeying orders were quite novel, and Inuyasha furrowed his brow as Sango glared at him.

"Kagome needs privacy." She snapped and Inuyasha frowned.

Kagome didn't so much as glance in his direction as he stood up and slowly backed away. Sango was glaring at him with tears brimming in her eyes. His heart sank at Sango's furious, yet worried expression, and Kagome's perfectly blank one. Her lack of response sent chills down his spine as it dawned on him that this was out of the norm, yet Sango somehow knew what was going on. He didn't know what was wrong with her, and he knew there was nothing he could do to about it. He felt completely helpless. His shoulders slumped as he turned and walked away, and Sango turned her attention back to Kagome. She wrestled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Kagome's mother.

Karori answered on the first ring. "Sango, is everything okay?"

"Karori," Sango's voice shook. "Kagome's having an anxiety attack."

 **Please review!**


	11. Acceptance

"I wonder when they're gonna be done in there," Rin murmured. "It's already after midnight."

"These kinds of things take time," Miroku told her. "It's not something you can just rush through."

"I know, but I still feel terrible."

Sesshomaru raised a brow at her. "You shouldn't pin this on anyone. Obviously this is very personal for her. We just need to give her space until she's comfortable enough to come around again."

Everyone nodded, agreeing solemnly. After Rin and Sesshomaru gathered the group into the car, Sango requested that Inuyasha switch seats with her so that she could sit in the back with a frigid Kagome. No one dared to ask any questions as to why Kagome had suddenly become mute, nor did they say anything at all after being met with Sango's hostile but worried expression. Even Kouga laid off.

So the group endured a thick, tense silence on the way back to the guest house. Inuyasha couldn't help but glance behind him occasionally to check on Kagome, but each time he did she was staring ahead, unnaturally still. Eventually, Sango pulled Kagome closer to her, and Kagome buried her face in Sango's lap while Sango cradled her friend, stroking the back of her head reassuringly. When they returned to the house, everyone went about settling down with their snacks to relax and unwind, but Sango had rushed Kagome into the bathroom, effectively ruining the plans for the Jacuzzi.

Unknown to anyone but the two girls, Sango had given Kagome her medicine, which Karori instructed was in her backpack. She joined Kagome in the bath and they changed into their pajamas before Sango escorted her upstairs to the only closed bedroom for privacy. The others didn't seem to notice them, since they were all in the living room playing truth or dare. Sango had texted Sesshomaru and Rin, telling them not to come upstairs for the time being while Kagome gathered herself. Everyone downstairs socialized as usual to take away some of the tension, but Inuyasha couldn't help but worry.

"She'll come around." Miroku said certainly. "In the mean time, let's continue. It's your turn, Ayame."

"Okay, let me see..." She glanced around at the group as she made her decision. "Rin. Truth or dare?"

"Dare me, bitch." Rin somehow said pleasantly.

"I dare you... to go up on the balcony and jump down onto the sofa."

"Isn't that a little reckless?" Sesshomaru grimaced. He knew looking at his girlfriend's face that she was all for it. Rin wasn't one to back down from a silly dare.

"I'm game. I can do it." She said triumphantly.

"Is it wise to be going up there with Kagome and Sango?" Inuyasha interjected.

"True..." Rin pouted. " But that was such a good one! Better than Kouga's stupid dares."

"You're just too much of a pussy to do it." Kouga snorted.

"The rules of the game explicitly prohibit any sexual dares among the couples with other participants."

"So formal." Kouga waved his hands sarcastically. "I think it'd be pretty hot if you made out with Ayame..."

"Kouga." Sesshomaru's voice was firm. Kouga hid his shudder at the chilling tone of his friend's voice. Miroku shook his head as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was from Sango and he unlocked his screen to open the message:

 _Kagome is ready to come downstairs. Tell the others that they are **not** to question her about **any** of this._

Miroku sighed and put his finger to his lips as he passed his phone around for the others to read the message and they all nodded in agreement. Just as they continued their game, they heard the door upstairs open and the soft padding of bare feet on the floor as Sango came downstairs, followed by Kagome. Her color had returned to her face and she now looked pensive rather than expressionless.

"What're you guys up to?" Sango asked casually.

" _Trying_ to play truth or dare but Kouga is being a fuck bag, as usual." Rin grumbled and Sango chuckled a bit.

"Why don't we play a different game that doesn't provoke anyone to do anything that makes them uncomfortable..." Rin stated.

Sesshomaru glared at Ayame. "Like telling each other to jump from the balcony."

"Let's play _'open a fucking window,_ '" Kouga complain. "I'm dying in here!"

"I _told_ you to bring light pajamas but you don't fucking listen." Rin glared at him. "Fleece? I outta hit you."

"Well it was cold outside so I figured it'd be cold inside, too!" he whined.

"Let's just do questions," Ayame suggested. "We all take turns asking questions, and everyone has to answer."

"Like 'Never Have I Ever'?" Miroku asked. Ayame shook her head.

"No, just questions. It can be general 'yes or no' questions or 'would you rather' questions. 'Never Have I Ever' is too specific and then everyone has to think of things they've never done, and it's too much."

"Yeah, especially when you and Kouga have done everything." Sango grinned. "You guys would so lose."

Kouga gave Ayame a look that made everyone in the room turn away in embarrassment and Kagome smiled _really_ small. It didn't go unnoticed by Sango and Inuyasha. Inuyasha was glad. Even though she was still quiet, she seemed to be her normal self. She was usually quiet anyway, unless someone engaged her directly into conversation.

"Okay, you start with the questions, Ayame." Rin snuggled up to Sesshomaru as he wrapped an arm around her. Ayame tapped her chin and squinted her eyes at nothing in particular, _hmm_ 'ing to herself.

"What is your biggest fear? And no generic answers like death or losing a family member. I mean an actual person, event, or _thing_ that scares you!"

"I'm not afraid of anything," Kouga boasted and Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

"You're scared of Shibito."

"The hell I am!"

Ayame giggled. "He's scared of getting circumcised," she said and everyone started laughing.

"You're not circumcised?" Miroku furrowed his brow.

Kouga shrugged. "You _are_?"

"...We all are. Well, I am. I don't know about these two."

"I didn't get circumcised until I was four, but yes." Sesshomaru said nonchalantly.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes impatiently. "We're getting sidetracked from the original question."

"Someone isn't circumcised, besides me." Kouga laughed and Inuyasha gave him the finger.

"Leave Inuyasha's mushroom out of this," Miroku said, trying with everything in him not to laugh. " _My_ biggest fear is black holes."

Ayame raised a brow. "Oh? That's an answer I wasn't expecting." Miroku shrugged.

"They're kinda scary looking, and devastatingly destructive. I'd hate to get sucked into one."

"My biggest fear is spiders," Sango said. "Such creepy little things."

"Mine too!" Rin squealed. "Ah, I can't even look at them! They're like Satan's balls."

"Balls?" Inuyasha chuckled. "I'd have to say my biggest fear is being tortured."

"I'd really have to think about this one..." Sesshomaru pondered. "Aside from the things Ayame said not to mention, I guess I'd have to say losing my mind or going crazy. Anything that takes me away from being myself."

Kouga whistled low. "What's with you and all the deep philosophical answers?"

"Well I'm not afraid of circumcision, so I figured I'd give a different answer."

Rin and Ayame stifled a laugh.

"Now is circumcision your final answer, or are we going to move on to the next question?" Sesshomaru challenged and Kouga huffed.

"I'm not afraid of anything."

"Yeah, okay."

"Kouga's being and idiot." Miokru sighed. "Let's just move on–"

"Kagome, are you playing?" Rin asked and Kagome's eyes widened as she glanced away from the others with an uncertain look on her face. Rin grimaced as she realized it was too late to take her question back. Kagome furrowed her brow as she stared at the floor, playing with a ring on her little finger as she bit her lip.

"Wasps." She blurted out.

Rin raised a brow. "Wasps?"

"I'm allergic," Kagome explained quietly, still not looking at anyone.

Everyone tried to avert their eyes from her, but it was extremely awkward given her episode earlier and then trying to act like nothing happened. Sango knew she had to make everyone act like nothing happened for the sake of Kagome not having to explain her situation to everyone, but now they all knew that there was more to her quiet complexity than just simply being shy.

Kagome was mortified with herself. She'd been doing so well over the past two months with talking with people and speaking out in class and making new friends. She initially assumed that her breakdown was due to the overwhelming fear from the actors in the Saiga Hospital, but aside from being scared, she'd held up fine until the moment Inuyasha physically tried to comfort her. She'd become shaken up and unresponsive, out of fear of intimacy, rather than the mock horror that was going on around her. Maybe, given her condition, intimacy was truly her biggest fear.

"Next question," Rin said to fill the thick silence. "Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know. Something you wouldn't _want_ anyone to know."

"Now before I answer this," Sango sent a firm glance around the room and her gaze landed on Kouga. "Just a _friendly_ reminder to everyone here that anything said in this room tonight doesn't get repeated to a soul."

"Alright, alright, I get it. Fuck," he huffed. "So tell us, _Sango_ , something most of us don't know about you."

"Well... Kagome already knows this." Sango glanced at her friend sitting cross legged on the sofa bed beside Ayame and Kouga. "... _but..._ I peed my pants in the rain."

Kagome giggled a bit and Kouga and Inuyasha fell into a collective, full-blown laughing session. Sango blushed like a madwoman as she caught sight of Miroku staring at her like she grew another head. Everyone looked at Miroku's face and laughed even harder.

"Miroku, it's not what you think... I didn't just pee myself for the sake of peeing myself."

"Please explain, Love." Miroku said calmly. Too calmly.

"I was waiting to use the copy machine for my books when we were doing high school entrance exams and it was raining _hard_. And the line was so long that it extended outside of the building and I couldn't _leave_ the line. I'd have to wait forever to get to the front again!"

Miroku took a deep breath. "Okay, I guess I can still be attracted to you, then." He leaned forward and pecked Sango's cheek and she grinned sheepishly.

"Well, since we're telling _embarrassing_ secrets," Ayame began. "I have a third nipple."

…

"We kinda already knew that." Inuyasha said slowly.

"You hinted at it, remember?" Sango retorted. Ayame glanced at her hands in her lap, thinking.

"Okay, well I gave Kouga a rim job last night."

"Rim job?" Kagome raised a brow.

"She licked his freshly shaved butt hole." Sango grinned. Kouga shrugged, not phased by the spilling of his very personal information.

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF–" Kagome's out burst made her face turn a deep red and everyone else went blank and fell into a roar of laughter. "That's sick!" Kagome's eyes were impossibly wide as she stared at Ayame's dyed red hair, her face now buried in her hands as she shielded her face from the others in embarrassment. Kagome didn't know if she'd be able to look at her friend the same way again...

"No it's not." Miroku stated. "It's only disgusting that it's Kouga, because I don't think he wipes. But I'd eat Sango's ass."

"Oh, _Lord_." Sango groaned as she shoved Miroku away.

"Hey, I wipe!" Kouga defended.

"I know, but when I _look_ at you," Miroku rubbed his chin. "I just can't help but think 'he's dirty. He looks like he doesn't wipe and his balls clap.'"

"Balls _clap?_ " Sesshomaru's eyebrows shot up.

"Miroku, you really are special." Inuyasha was shaking his head.

"Who's next?" Ayame said shyly.

"I'll bite. Mine is actually me and Sesh combined," Rin sent her boyfriend a knowing look which he understood and rolled his eyes, murmuring 'go ahead.'

"Sesh and I had a pregnancy scare last year."

" _Really?_ " Inuyasha rubbed his chin. "I should've known that was why you were acting strange."

"Plus, it's no fucking surprise." Kouga rolled his eyes. "You don't know how to tie up your one eyed worm and that little guy's just spewing everywhere he pleases."

"It ain't little, I'll tell you that," Rin smirked. "Kouga? Your secret?"

"Ayame told mine."

"She didn't say it was a combined secret, plus she had to reveal two secrets, so let's get on with it." Rin was impatient now.

Kouga thought for a moment. "Not the I'm particularly embarrassed to admit this, but no one knows. Kikyo tried to give me head once, while she and Inuyasha were kinda dating."

"Not surprised." Inuyasha said dismissively. "Thanks for being a good friend and telling me about it, you asshole. I'm only finding out two years later."

"You're just mad because she never tried to give you head." Kouga wiggled his eyebrows and Inuyasha smirked.

"Oh yeah, I'm _so_ jealous of anything involving _her_. You know it was pretty obvious she liked you."

"Still creepy," Kouga closed his eyes and leaned back on the couch with his hands behind his head. "She got a justified ass whooping so I don't really care."

Ayame grinned smugly.

"So what's your secret, dog boy?" Kouga raised a brow at Inuyasha.

Kagome's stare bore into the crown of Inuyasha's head as she scrutinized his expression. He looked a bit sheepish, but somewhat determined. His eyes flickered to her and his expression fell, just as it had the first time Sango introduced them. Then he blushed quite strongly. That was a first. What was that supposed to mean? Kagome's heart sank.

"I uh," he glanced at Kagome again, unsure if he should say what he was gonna say. He decided to change tactics. "The first time I ejaculated was in public."

" _Whoa_." Miroku put his hands up as if defending himself. Kagome's eyes widened. She could swear he was going to say something else, something that had to do with her. But this...

"That is..." Kouga stared into space. "...literally the last thing I expected you to say."

"Were you jerking off?" Miroku asked.

"No," Inuyasha shook his head. "I was in a public library looking up something for school and I clicked on something that made all these porno ads pop up and I clicked on one out of prepubescent curiosity and I just suddenly–" he made a jerking motion with his hand, "came. First time. I didn't know what it was and I was extremely excited and scared. But that's when I started masturbating."

"How old were you?" Ayame's eyes were impossibly wide.

"Eleven."

"Damn. You were just a baby."

Inuyasha chuckled.

"I'm taking my shirt off, I don't give a _fuck_ what Rin or anyone else says." Kouga suddenly ripped off his shirt. "It's too hot in here for all this sex talk and wearing clothes."

"I love how an eleven year old Inuyasha ejaculating makes you just wanna rip your fucking shirt off," Sango cocked a brow at Kouga.

"That shirt better be the only _clothing_ you take off," Sesshomaru warned.

"If that's the case, I'm taking my shirt off, too." Miroku muttered as he pulled his shirt over his head.

Rin giggled, "Ayame, is it bad that I want you to take your shirt off so I can see your third nipple?"

Ayame blushed strongly, "I can show you in the bathroom, if you want."

"I don't see what the big deal is about an extra nipple," Sesshomaru rolled his eyes.

"I like it," Kouga was grinning ear to ear. "More to suck on." He wiggled his brows at Ayame and she giggled.

"Amen! If Sango had a lot of nipples," Miroku started, ignoring Sango's glare. "I'd put peanut butter on all of them and stick marshmallows to them."

Sango slapped Miroku's bare back, making a nice skin on skin contact sound and Inuyasha covered his eyes with his hand as he chuckled. "I don't know what I'm doing here, but Miroku, you have some of the most interesting outbursts I've ever heard."

"I'll stick peanut butter and marshmallows to your nipples too, if you want me to." Miroku grinned and Inuyasha stood up off the edge of the couch and backed away from his friend.

"No, I'm fine, really."

" _Gimme those nipples, Takahashi!"_ Miroku roared and tackled Inuyasha on the floor and they erupted into laughter as Miroku literally tore through Inuyasha's plain white T-shirt from the chest.

"You're an asshole," Inuyasha laughed as he sat back and leaned on his hands, looking at the large hole in his chest. "You're lucky this is just a plain shirt or I'd kill you."

"You have nice nipples," Miroku stared at Inuyasha's chest in admiration and Kagome blushed when Inuyasha's gaze flickered to her as he bit his lip. Admittedly, he had a very nice chest. She'd even go so far as to say he was... sexy. She blushed at the direction of her thoughts. Her friends were definitely rubbing off on her.

"Look at the circumference of his areolas." Miroku continued. "They're beautiful."

"You act like it's the first time you've seen my chest." Inuyasha chuckled.

"It's Kagome's first time," Kouga howled and Kagome's eyes widened as everyone looked at her. "We almost forgot about you, Pip Squeak. What's your secret?"

"Umm..." Kagome bit her lip, mirroring Inuyasha's previous expression. "You guys kinda already know it now."

"Oh?" Inuyasha sat up and leaned on his arms on the bed, looking up at her. "You mean your... anxiety?"

Blushing, Kagome nodded.

"That's nothing to be embarrassed of, Kagome," he told her reassuringly. "A lot of people suffer from anxiety."

"Yeah," Rin cooed, smiling brightly at her friend. "We don't love you any less if you suffer from anxiety. It's actually best that we all know so that we have a better understanding of you."

"Aww Kagome," Ayame surprised Kagome by pulling her in for a hug. "I always thought it was cute that you were shy, and now that I know why, I appreciate you more as a person because I know that it's a struggle for you to deal with on a day to day basis."

"Aww," Sango was holding back tears as she leaned on the bed to hug Kagome and Ayame. Miroku followed Sango, then Rin, then Inuyasha, then Kouga–making a bit of a gruff sounding _aww–_ and finally, Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and joined in on the group hug. Kagome sat in the circle of her friends' arms, feeling overwhelmed again, but not in a way that triggered her anxiety.

She was happy, happy that she didn't have to hide from her friends anymore, happy that even though her secret was out, they still loved and accepted her for who she really was. This was true friendship, and it went well beyond Sango's long distance phone calls and Inuyasha giving her a ride every day. Seven people got to know her as a person, shared secrets with her, teased her, laughed with her, and treated her like a normal person. Even after they learned of her drawbacks, they decided that they valued her enough to overlook them.

Feeling tears sliding down her cheeks, Kagome turned and hugged Ayame back, burying her face into the crook of her neck and sighing contently.

* * *

Through the haze of sleep, Kagome could hear a faint sound. The sound of... whispering and giggling. She didn't know if it was real or if she was still dreaming. Laying perfectly still, Kagome hoped that sleep would eventually consume her completely. She was in that state of mind where consciousness and unconsciousness were just a fine line...

The sound of the front door creaking shut jolted her awake, even though it was such a subtle noise. Kagome scowled in the dim light of the living room. No one else seemed to hear it since everyone else was still fast asleep. Feeling a slight pressure in her lower abdomen, she decided to get up and go pee. When she finished, she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror while she washed her hands. She was pale, as usual, her eyes had dark circles under them, and her hair was an absolute tangled mess. It was too hot in the house for any of them to endure, and Kagome's black pajama shorts and purple camisole weren't enough to prevent her from becoming weary of the heat.

She slinked into the kitchen and opened the fridge for a glass of juice that Ayame bought for the house and downed it in 12 seconds flat. She glanced into the living room to see if she had disturbed anyone, but her eyes widened when she saw that Ayame was no longer on the sofa bed.

Depositing her cup by the sink as quietly as she could, she tiptoed into the living room and checked the blankets and sure enough, Ayame was missing. Fear gripped her heart and she hurried to the stairs to wake up the others when she tripped over something and fell.

"Ow..." she moaned as she fell onto something solid yet also soft.

"Jesus," he groaned, sitting up with Kagome straddling him as that was how she'd fallen onto him.

"Sorry!" she whispered and scurried to get off his lap. She watched him blink sleep out of his eyes and her raised a brow at her.

"What are you doing awake?" Inuyasha asked softly. "Couldn't sleep?"

Kagome blushed. "I thought I heard something and I went to get a drink but saw that Ayame wasn't in bed..."

Inuyasha scooted forward and suddenly stood up, towering over her and reaching beside the opposite couch to turn on the lamp. Kagome blinked as light filled the room, and Inuyasha immediately flicked the light back off and sat down.

"Don't worry about Ayame," he grumbled. "Her and Kouga took off somewhere. He's not here, either."

"Oh..." Kagome grumbled. Inuyasha smiled without humor.

"Goes with tradition, I guess. No matter what kind of group outing we do, they have to sneak off somewhere to have sex."

Kagome didn't respond and he couldn't see her face, only her silhouette as the light from the kitchen was directly behind her. He cleared his throat and excused himself to get a drink, using the same cup Kagome had deposited by the sink.

"I take it you're a light sleeper?" he asked as he returned to the living room with his drink and placing a coaster on the table beside the sofa bed. Kagome had gotten up off the floor and was sitting in the middle of it, twiddling her fingers. He took a sip of his drink with his other hand in his pants pocket. He was still wearing his shirt with the giant rip in the chest.

"Yeah," she finally whispered. "Sorry for waking you."

His eyes softened. "It's okay. You seem a little out of sorts this weekend. Or maybe I'm just not used to seeing you in a non-school setting?"

Kagome's lips quirked up a bit. "I'm not used to being around people outside of school, apart from Sango and family..."

Inuyasha set his drink down on the coaster and sat on the edge of the bed with his back to her. His wild hair had been neatly done in a long braid thanks to Kagome, as it was much too hot for him to wear it down. She stared at the back of his head, playing with a loose thread on her blanket.

"You're not used to much of anything we do, are you?" he asked kindly and Kagome's heart stuttered.

"I guess not. I've never..." she took a deep breath. "I'm not used to this kind of... intimacy."

He turned his head to look at her. "Intimacy?"

She nodded. "Building a closeness with someone outside of school. It's difficult."

"Difficult?"

She took a deep breath again. "Inuyasha... I don't know how to tell you this..." she trailed off, her heart fluttering. Inuyasha leaned closer and extended his arm to place his hand on her face.

"Please don't," she whispered and his hand froze. "It makes it harder."

"Would you feel more comfortable if I wasn't looking at you?" He asked gently and she nodded. He obliged and turned away to face the kitchen again as Kagome released a breath. With him turned away, she found it a little easier to speak. "Go ahead," he gently prompted.

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, trying to calm her racing heart. Intimacy was truly a challenge, especially with Inuyasha, and that's how she knew she had deep feelings for him. But if he treated her in such a way that he was trying to be physically intimate with her, and she shut down every time, she'd never get anywhere with him. And after he and all of her other friends vowed to love her and treat her the same as they always did while knowing that she was a little different, then he deserved to know the truth about her.

She didn't want her condition to hold her back from growing as a person, and growing with him. She had feelings for him. Romantic feelings. She wanted to take Sango's advice and leap for her chances for love. Not that she was proclaiming love for Inuyasha or anything, but she knew that she had deep feelings for him. Whether he was the love of her life, or just a step along the way, she didn't want to hold off on finding love and having children and making friends because of her anxiety. She would not let this hinder her from her dreams of falling in love and getting married.

Kagome was quiet for such a long time that he didn't think she was gonna say anything. Just as he was gonna turn around to peek at her, she blurted out.

"I have selective mutism."

He froze, still staring into the kitchen. "...Selective mutism?"

Kagome nodded, though he couldn't see her. "It's like being a mute, but certain situations trigger becoming mute."

Inuyasha was quiet now as he furrowed his brow. This explained everything. This was the missing piece, what she was hiding from him all this time. At first he didn't know how to feel about this information being revealed, and then it hit him. He was... relieved. She'd finally opened up to him. He was pleased that she trusted him enough to tell him herself. Now he wouldn't have to pressure Sango about it...

"So... Is that what happened today? Your... mutism... was triggered?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." He thought for a moment. "Does this happen often?"

"No. This is the first time it happened in a very long time."

Inuyasha closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Kagome?"

She scrutinized his body language as she clutched the blanket in her fist. "Yes?"

"Why did you move to America?"

Kagome bit her lip and released the blanket, crawling over to the edge of the bed to sit beside him. Before she knew it, she placed her hand over his on his thigh and he looked at her with a bewildered expression. Being the first to initiate physical contact of any kind was highly out of the norm for her...

"Please don't look at me," she whispered. "I already don't know how I'm managing this. I don't want it to be harder."

He turned his gaze to the floor and closed his eyes, inhaling. Her natural scent invaded his nose and he welcomed it as her grip tightened on his hand slightly.

"I was diagnosed with selective mutism when I was four," she spoke slowly. "It's an anxiety disorder that occurs in children. I was doing poorly in school. I couldn't talk to anyone when I was in head start. At first my parents thought I was having trouble making friends. When I wouldn't talk to my teachers, they called me into the office every day. I wanted to talk, but I couldn't. My dad got called into the school every day. My principal told him I wasn't participating in any activities, and when my dad asked me why, I couldn't say it. I had words in my head, but I wasn't able to speak.

"I went to a professional, and she told me I was showing symptoms of being a mute. Being only four, I was learning to speak around that time. I could speak very well at home, but no where else."

She paused and Inuyasha remained quiet, so she figured she wasn't making him uncomfortable and she continued.

"When my parents told her that I was speaking at home, she said that I had selective mutism, and that it wasn't common to find doctors in Japan who could help with treatment, so my mother started looking for resources outside of the country. The only specialist she found that could speak Japanese was located in New York City. It took a long time for Mama to get the money to locate us there, and my brother was only an infant, but my mother still wanted me to get treatment."

"So you left your brother and father behind?" Inuyasha inquired.

"Yes. My father passed away when I was ten. Souta had to be raised by my grandfather for most of his life. Luckily, I was able to speak English by the time he passed away. I was seeing five different specialists."

"Five?" Inuyasha raised his eyebrows, trying his best not to look at her. He really wanted to read her face.

"Three for my treatment, one for personal issues, like my father's death, and my group counselor."

"I see," he peeked at her through the side of his eyes and saw that her head was facing away from him. He slowly moved his hand so that it rested on top of hers and he stroked her knuckles gently the the pad of his thumb. "Do you mind if I ask about these treatments?"

"Well, I did Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It helped me understand _why_ I shied away from the world. It focuses on helping identify certain things that result in certain behaviors. I was unable to speak with people, so I practiced with speaking with my mother, therapists, and home school teacher.

"I also did Play Therapy, which is basically playing with dolls to express myself," she turned to give him a shy smile and he faced her fully. "Eventually they brought other children into the sessions for me to interact with. It made it easier to cope with being around people I didn't know or understand."

"So when did you feel you were becoming comfortable with coping with your anxiety?" he asked while maintaining eye contact and she turned to look at the floor.

"When Mama would take me out to go places, I started placing my own order instead of waiting for her to do it. I would walk into a store and not be hyper aware of the cashier and even exchange small talk. I went to an all-girls private school for a short time and was able to talk out loud in class.

"By that time, I was at peace with my father's death, but I didn't get along with the girls I went to school with. They didn't like me, I assume, because I was a foreigner and I didn't take interest in the same things they did."

"Silly teenage girl things?" Inuyasha smiled at her, hoping she'd look at him again. She glanced at him briefly with a small smile on her lips and nodded. "Kim K. and Snap Chat?"

That caused her to laugh wholeheartedly and he joined in, still holding her hand. She flushed a bit as he tightened his hold on her hand again, gently urging her to continue.

"That was when I decided I wanted to come home. I felt that I'd made enough progress that I could return home and be myself and start my life over, where I grew up."

He grinned, "America is your home, too. You grew up there most of your life and learned more there than you did here."

"Yes, but Japan... this is my childhood. I was born here, grew up with Sango here, learned to walk, speak. I was a happy child. In America, I was miserable. Everything was about treatment and therapy and self growth. I didn't have a normal childhood. It got to be pretty dull after all those years."

"Yeah, I bet." He shifted a bit to turn his body slightly toward her. "So what happened earlier... That's the first time this happened since you came to Japan?"

She winced a bit and it didn't go unnoticed by him. "Yeah."

"Why do you think that is?" he pressed quietly.

"I think it's–" she stopped, choking a bit.

"You okay?" he released her hand to rub her back.

She stuttered a bit. "Physical contact with you..." she muttered and he pulled his hand away and went back to his previous position, staring at the floor again.

"Sorry. It's a natural response for comforting..."

"No, I mean..." she took a deep breath. "I think... physical contact... with you... is what..." she trailed off and he nodded in understanding.

"So... I can't... touch you?" he asked uncertainly, not wanting it to sound smutty.

"I don't know. It's difficult to explain." Her brows scrunched together in frustration. She'd gotten this far with him with verbal communication. Hell, it was the longest extended verbal communication she had with anyone besides Sango and her family. She'd bonded more with him than any of her other friends over the last two months. He should be the easiest person to confide in. Why was this so hard with him _now_?

She knew the answer. Right when she was about to speak again, he cut her off.

"Is it because I like you?" He was facing her again and her hands involuntarily balled up into fists. Her heart stuttered in her chest as her throat tightened up again.

 ** _'No._** _I am_ ** _tired_** _of letting this control me,'_ she thought to herself, determined. ' _I can do this. I didn't spend most of my life away from my family to let this stupid anxiety get the best of me, dammit.'_

"Yes." Her voice was almost inaudible, yet somehow still firm. "And I'm not used to intimacy. I don't know if I can... be romantically inclined with someone because of it. I don't wanna push away the object of my affections because I don't know how to love or be even _remotely_ physically involved."

He resisted the urge to rub her back. "I guess you could say intimacy is your biggest fear. Not in the intimacy itself, but the fact that you almost naturally shied away from it your whole life. It's scary for you now that you're being exposed to it, and that's perfectly normal even to someone who doesn't have anxiety."

She sighed. "You have no idea how amazing it is to me that you understand."

"You have no idea how strong you really are, do you?" He raised a brow at her and she looked at him with a skeptical expression. "You've literally gone around the world to deal with your problems and you've been through so much in the process. I'm in awe that you've come to understand yourself and try to open up to others when it's so difficult for you."

Kagome snorted. "I didn't understand myself until I came back to Japan and met you guys."

"Oh?"

"I was still extremely shy when I came out here. It wasn't until I got to know you and the others that I realized that the only thing I was missing was... myself. I didn't know who I was, what my ambitions were, what truly made me happy.

"Everything I worked to achieve in America was just the basics, learning to communicate with others and understand my faults and how to deal with them. Making friends and boosting my self esteem was the goal, but I wasn't _making_ friends in America. When I came back to Japan and met you guys, I actually got to work on my relationships and my self esteem. The fact that I'm sitting here having this conversation with you, of all people, is proof that I'm getting better."

Inuyasha's brows shot up. "Me, of all people? What's that supposed to mean?" He tried not to sound hurt, and Kagome winced at his tone. She didn't mean it unkindly.

 _'Tell him,'_ she scolded herself. _'You're doing fine. Don't go back now.'_

"I... like you too..." she whisped, her face as red as his pajama pants.

Just then, the front door swung open and Kouga and Ayame stepped in, giggling and holding onto each other. They didn't notice the couple perched on the bed and slowly shut the door, while whispering sweet nothings to each other. Inuyasha blinked at them, raising a frustrated eyebrow. Right when he and Kagome were getting somewhere...

"OH!" Ayame squealed when she turned around and noticed Inuyasha and Kagome on the bed. "Are we interrupting something?"

"We could be asking _you_ that," he said impatiently. "You two have no self control. It's a marvel you aren't the ones who had the pregnancy scare."

"Sesh and Rin go at it _way_ more than we do." Ayame rolled her eyes as she perched on the bed, wincing as she sat down. Kagome looked away in embarrassment.

"The fuck are you two doing up?" Kouga asked, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"Kagome couldn't sleep, so I was comforting her. You assholes are probably the ones that woke her up." Inuyasha growled.

"Yeah, yeah. Well we're back now, and I'm tired so I'm taking my ass to sleep." He huddled on the other couch and propped his head up on the armrest, not bothering with a blanket since it was so hot in the house. Ayame had laid back on the bed so Inuyasha and Kagome decided to settle into their respective sleeping areas. He gave her a very brief hug and whispered goodnight in her ear before he settled into the sleeping bag at the foot of the sofa bed.

Kagome was infinitely relieved that she'd gotten all of that off her chest. She felt like she redeemed herself after her episode only a few hours prior and Inuyasha and her other friends understood and accepted her regardless of her irregularities. Sending a quick glance down at him, she smiled softly as she pulled her blanket over herself and eventually nodded off to sleep.

Unknown to Kagome, her best friend was upstairs laying in her bed, having heard her entire conversation with Inuyasha. She clutched Kagome's previously discarded necklace close to her heart, trying to hold back her tears.

 _'You've grown to be so strong, Kagome,'_ she tightened her grip on the glow stick. _'I'm so proud of you.'_

* * *

 **Finally got some fluff going here. I actually got emotional typing this chapter, lol.**

 **Please review!**


	12. Missing

"Kagome!" Souta's voice made Kagome shoot awake as he pounded his fist on her bedroom door. "Get up! Breakfast is on the table." She heard his footsteps fade away down the stairs. Stretching out beneath her blankets, she groped her nightstand for her phone, wondering idly why her alarm hadn't woken her up. Her eyes widened seeing that the clock on her phone read 7:12. Inuyasha would be there to pick her up any minute.

' _Damn!'_ she cursed herself. ' _I never changed my alarm from the weekend.'_ During her stay with her friends in the guest house over the weekend, she'd set her alarm to 8 in the morning and must have forgotten to change it back to get up for school. She sat up, ready to bolt out of bed when she was hit by a wave of dizziness. Flopping back down on her bed, she groaned, rubbing her temples.

"Mama..." she groaned, not recognizing her own voice. It was sore and scratchy. She cleared her throat best she could, but instead fell into a fit of coughing.

"Mama!" she half screamed, half squealed. Her throat felt like it was on fire and her head felt like it weighed a ton. She couldn't sit up or project her voice and she didn't wanna have to miss school. Her heart stopped as she heard the doorbell. That was undoubtedly Inuyasha...

Karori smiled broadly seeing Inuyasha standing on the threshold in his school blazer. She'd warmed up to him quite a bit over time after seeing that he and Kagome were so close. It was a marvel to her that Kagome was so comfortable with him. It was very uncommon to see her so open with anyone, especially a young man as attractive as him...

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she gave him a warm smile. "Good morning, honey."

"Morning," he greeted her with the same amount of warmth, bowing slightly.

"Kagome is still getting ready, I assume. She hasn't come out of her room yet. You can rest in the living room until she's ready." She let him in and he was a bit flustered as he muttered 'thank you.' Kagome never took this long to get ready, and he'd never been invited into her home before. He took a seat on the big, puffy recliner and pulled his phone out of his pocket, raising his eyebrows at the time. This was very out of the norm...

"Would you like some tea or a bite?" Karori asked kindly from the doorway, making him jump a bit. He gave her a tight smile.

"Actually I'm running a bit late. Are you sure Kagome is awake? It's almost time for school and I don't want her to be late."

Karori paused. "It's very unlikely for her to sleep in but I'll go check on her." She pushed herself off the doorway and made her way upstairs to Kagome's room.

"Kagome, your friend is downstairs. Are you almost ready in there?" Karori asked from outside the door. Kagome's eyes widened as she tried to speak but her voice was too croaky. Karori grimaced and opened the door. Her eyebrows shot up seeing Kagome laying in bed with a flushed face and a pained expression.

"Oh!" She ran to Kagome's bedside and placed her palm tenderly across her forehead. "Oh dear, you have a terrible fever."

"My head hurts," Kagome croaked and Karori's eyes softened.

"Looks like you'll have to stay in bed for a while. I'll go tell Inuyasha." She made a move to leave but Kagome clutched her shirt weakly.

"He's here?" her voice was raspy and unrecognizable.

"He's been sitting in the living room waiting for you. I'll tell him to be on his way so he's not late for school, then I'll come take your temperature." She gently pried Kagome's fingers from her shirt and made her way downstairs.

"Kagome won't be going to school today," Karori told Inuyasha apologetically. "She has a fever. I'm really sorry you had to waste your time coming here."

Inuyasha's face fell. Kagome was sick? Undoubtedly from being exposed to the cold weather over the weekend for so long. Still, he felt a pang of unease. It must've been bad if she didn't even have the energy to text him and tell him. He briefly exchanged a farewell and walked out the door to drive himself to school. As he buckled up he glanced at the passenger seat and frowned. His car felt so empty without Kagome.

* * *

Inuyasha made his way from homeroom to his first period class in a daze. He knew he was walking, but he wasn't really seeing anything as his eyes stayed trained forward. He was taller than most of the student body, and the teachers at that, so all he was seeing was a sea of dark hair and the school uniforms that strayed past him, arching and scurrying to walk around him so they wouldn't crash into his large, stone-like body.

He remembered the day he met Kagome, when she rushed into the room just as he was leaving, only to collide with his colossal body and tumble back onto the floor. When he lifted her, she felt so soft and small in his arms. He always found it to be adorable that she was so short. She was a perfect contrast to his much larger body, almost like they were meant to fit into each other.

He sat at his desk in whatever class he was in, fiddling with his pen, clicking and un-clicking it as he lost himself in his thoughts. It wasn't very common to be as tall as he was, especially in his age group. He'd been well over 6 feet since he was 11 years old. He was teased about it often, not up close, obviously. Most people were scared of him, especially after learning that he had an older brother who was even taller, and more menacing without the added height.

The only person who saw past his height and had the "audacity" to befriend him was Miroku when they were in seventh grade. Ayame came very shortly after–she was actually fascinated by his height–along with Kouga, who was dating her at the time. Kouga and Inuyasha had always butted heads over literally everything from _who could eat more of whatever spicy food_ to _who could lift more_ and _who could run faster._ Inuyasha usually was victorious in their competitions, but he never backed down from a challenge, mostly because he loved watching Kouga's face when he lost. The only thing Kouga excelled at (which was actually quite a shock to most people) was keeping a girlfriend.

It was true that Inuyasha _kinda-sorta_ dated Kikyo, but it wasn't anything he personally considered to be special. Sure, they hung out after school and went to the movies and occasionally to lunch, but romantic feelings weren't involved on his end. She was just a friend who had taken a liking to him so he decided to give her a chance. And it wasn't long before everyone noticed that she was actually using him to get closer to Kouga...

"Mr. Takahashi?" His teacher rudely pulled him out of his thoughts as he remembered he was in school. He cleared his throat and gave his teacher a fake smile.

"Yes, Mr. Hoshiyomi?" he asked innocently, quite embarrassed as he realized everyone in the class was staring at him. His teacher had a deep scowl on his face.

"I advise you pay attention, Mr. Takahashi. This will be on the quiz tomorrow."

Inuyasha grimaced as his teacher turned away and–rather childishly–stuck his tongue out behind his back. ' _Fucking hate biology,'_ he thought darkly, his eyes wandered to the door. The exact spot where he first met Kagome. Lowering his eyes to his desk, he cupped his cheek and leaned his elbow on his desk, sighing deeply. He couldn't stop thinking about Kagome, and he knew it was because she wasn't there that he'd miss her more than usual.

 _'This is going to be a long day...'_

* * *

"Yup, 100.2 degree fever," Karori raised her eyebrows. "You'll be out of school for some time. I'll have to take a few days off work to take care of you. I can only imagine what kind of crazy things your grandfather would dig up from the artifacts in the shrine and try to feed you as some mumbo-jumbo magical cure..."

"I don't wanna miss school–" Kagome's weak whisper was cut off by her mother pressing her finger gently to her lips.

"Don't try to talk. You'll strain your voice. I'm gonna make you some tea with honey and lemon. I'll be right back."

Kagome rolled her eyes and her mother chuckled, knowing Kagome didn't have the strength to lift her head, let alone leave the room. She watched helplessly as her mother left the room and came back a moment later with a bottle of medicine, a small bell, and a board. She poured a cup of the medicine and let Kagome drink it slowly. She winced at the terrible, bitter taste of the medicine but downed it anyway. The sooner she got better, the sooner she could get out of bed and go to school.

"This is Souta's but you can use it for now since you shouldn't speak." She held up the board to reveal that it was a dry erase marker board. It had a little marker with a magnetic eraser cap. "Isn't it ironic that you couldn't speak to others most of your life and now you're physically unable?" Karori grinned as Kagome rolled her eyes. She gave her mom a small smile as she popped off the cap and wrote _thank you_ on the board. Karori gently kissed her head and stood up.

"That medicine should help you sleep. You relax and I'll go make some tea for your throat. Ring that bell if you need me. I'll be downstairs."

* * *

"You're looking especially gloomy today, Inuyasha," Ayame observed near the end of fifth period. She was in his business math class, and the teacher was through with the lesson and everyone was speaking among themselves for the remainder of the class.

"Yeah..." he said slowly, looking out the window.

"So how'd things go with you and Kagome?" She wiggled her eyebrows as he looked at her at the mention of their friend. "You two were sure up pretty late getting to know each other."

Inuyasha couldn't help but grin. "It's not like we were having a tryst like you and Kouga. Our clothes were still intact, apart from Miroku ripping through my shirt."

"But you two were all cuddly on the bed," she giggled. "I ship you two so hard, it's almost unhealthy."

"Yeah?" He raised a brow at her. "The way we all ship you and Kouga? Might as well go out with the guy–you're obviously infatuated with each other."

"Oh no you don't, Takahashi. Kouga and I have been at it for years. This is the first time I've actually seen you have a crush on someone. It's cute!"

Inuyasha caught Kikyo's eye from across the room. She frowned as she looked between him and Ayame before glancing away again. Inuyasha turned his attention back to Ayame.

"Yeah, yeah... Don't remind me."

"Did something happen between you two that you're so upset today?" Ayame arched a brow at him. The bell rang and everyone stood to leave for the cafeteria.

"No, I'm just worried her," he said as he and Ayame walked to her locker which was right at the end of the hall.

"Worried why? Her anxiety?"

"Not just that, but she's really ill today."

"Ill?" she asked absently as she switched out her books.

"Yeah, probably from being in the frigid cold and then that hot ass house."

"So she's not here today?" she asked and he shook his head at her. "I thought I saw you walking around the building alone this morning. She's usually with you before homeroom."

"Well, not today." He said flatly.

Ayame slammed her locker shut, smirking at him. "Aww. You miss her," she giggled while Inuyasha grimaced. He knew it was ridiculous, especially since they hadn't known each other that long, and weren't a couple, but he missed her terribly. He'd been periodically glancing at her empty desk in their creative writing class, hoping that she'd suddenly come into the room with some excuse for being late.

Wishful thinking.

Ayame waved her hand in front of his face, "Hey, Inu. Come back." She grinned as he narrowed his eyes at her. "I know, I won't tease you in front of the others. Look, why don't you go visit her under the pretense of giving her homework?"

Inuyasha's eyes widened. "That's actually a good idea..."

Ayame's grin somehow got even wider. " _Thank you, Ayame. You're the best pal anyone could ever have,"_ she mocked in a weird deep voice and he threw his head back in laughter as they made their way to the cafeteria.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll buy you an iced coffee as a thank you." He grinned at her.

Ayame's eyes sparkled. "With caramel?" Inuyasha laughed again.

"Yes, any way you want it. I'll even sprinkle some of Kouga's ball hair in there for ya."

Ayame grabbed his arm to halt him and he raised a brow at her. "So... Are you going to ask Kagome out anytime soon?"

Inuyasha's lips thinned as he glanced away. "I want to but..." he didn't know if he should open up about Kagome's selective mutism. It was something very personal to her and admitting that she had anxiety was difficult enough for her. It took a great deal of effort for her to share her journey with him and it wasn't something that he should go around telling everyone.

And as much as he adored Ayame like a sister, he knew that her knowing meant that Kouga would also know and he was the last person Kagome probably wanted to have such delicate information given how much he'd taken a liking to picking on her.

"Is it her, uh, anxiety?" she pondered and Inuyasha's face fell. Ayame knew him for a long time that she was no stranger to reading his face. "If it's any consolation... I don't think that's an issue. Kagome is very fond of you." She gave him a bright smile.

He gave her a small smile in return. "I know." His thoughts turned to their conversation over the weekend, when she admitted that she liked him. He blushed at the memory and couldn't contain the big stupid grin that spread across his face.

"Aww," Ayame reached up and squeezed his cheeks. "It's so cute seeing you all flustered and in love, Inu! I'm so happy for you! It's about damn time!"

Kouga raised a brow at them as they approached the table, rubbing his chin in amusement. "Did Pip Squeak break up with you already?"

"Shut up, asshole," Inuyasha said absently as he looped his backpack around the back of his chair and sat down.

"You're not gonna eat today?" Rin raised her brows. "You usually have the appetite of a mammoth."

"Not hungry today." He said dismissively.

"Where's Kagome? How come she's not with you?" Kouga pestered.

"But out, would ya?" Inuyasha was getting annoyed. Rin and Kouga looked at each other and shrugged.

"Someone's touchy today." Kouga was grinning manically. "Probably because he didn't get any ass over the weekend." Rin threw a chopstick at him.

Inuyasha growled darkly. "I said _but out_." He whispered menacingly and Kouga's grin widened.

"Oooh, scary." he picked up the chopstick Rin tossed at him and threw it at Inuyasha. Inuyasha took a deep, steadying breath, trying not to launch himself across the table to strangle his _friend_.

"Kouga, that's enough," Ayame admonished gently. She turned to Inuyasha. "I'm gonna go get in line. Sure you don't want anything?"

"I'm fine," he muttered petulantly. Ayame gave him a weak smile which he didn't return and went to get her lunch. Inuyasha opened his notebook, hoping to take his mind off Kagome's absence by doing some work. Rin and Kouga were having a conversation about something he didn't pay attention to when Miroku and Sango came to the table.

"Jeez, you were right," he heard Miroku mumble. Sango harshly shushed him.

"Hey... you..." Miroku started and Inuyasha slowly raised his eyes to see Miroku grinning rather uncomfortably at him.

"Yo."

"God dammit, enough of this." Rin poked Inuyasha's cheek. "Why are you being so pissy today?"

"Because Pip Squeak kicked him to the curb." Kouga rudely interjected.

"Kicked him to the curb?" Rin's eyes widened. "Is that why you were alone this morning?"

Sango rolled his eyes. "Oh _please._ She's probably sick."

"She is sick," Inuyasha grumbled. "I went to get her this morning and her mother said she had a bad fever."

"Ah. You miss her." Rin smiled sweetly, poking his cheek again and he grumbled some nasty words under his breath.

"Where's Sesshomaru?" Miroku asked.

"Something about a presentation. He said he'd be held up today." Rin said absently.

"You don't see Rin getting all pissy because her man isn't here," Kouga said with a mouthful of food. "Stop being such a bitch, Inuyasha."

"Kouga, shut your fucking mouth. I'm not gonna say it again." Inuyasha growled darkly.

"Fever?" Sango said, bringing up the original issue again. "Sounds pretty serious. She'll probably be out for a few days, at least."

"Yeah, Inuyasha and I are gonna bring her schoolwork to her later on today," Ayame said as she set her tray down on the table and winked at him before anyone noticed.

Sango grinned. "That's very generous of you, Inuyasha. Wouldn't want her to get behind, and I'm sure Kagome would be thrilled to see you." His gaze snapped up to meet Sango's.

"Think so?"

"Inuyasha, don't be coy. Everyone knows she's very fond of you." Sango echoed Ayame's previous statement, smirking at him. "Plus, I'm her childhood friend. I would know. She adores you."

Inuyasha perked up hearing her say that and smiled shyly.

* * *

Kagome rolled her eyes at her grandfather as he hooted at some silly Japanese game show. She was up and around after a nap, but still had a bit of a fever and a dull headache. Her throat hadn't cleared much, but after drinking the tea her mother gave her, it wasn't as sore. She was bundled up in thick winter pajamas, a robe, and a comforter as she nestled in the recliner that–unknown to her–Inuyasha was sitting in that very morning.

Her mother said that bundling up and staying hydrated would help her feel better. She'd been nonstop drinking orange juice and tea the whole morning. Though she felt better than she did in the morning, it didn't help that she was urinating _constantly_.

To make matters worse, her grandfather was driving her bananas. He spent the whole morning lecturing her about something or another, mostly boys, and she felt like her head was gonna explode from the sound of his voice. She tried to watch the news in the living room since she didn't have a TV in her bedroom, wanting to keep up on _something_ since she was unable to attend school. But her grandfather woke up and was talking her ear off from the get-go, taking the remote and running his mouth as he always did.

Kagome wrote something on the dry erase board and rung her bell to get her grandfather's attention. When he looked at her and read the board, he waved her off. Growing irritated, Kagome furiously rang the bell again, this time ringing it constantly until her mother came in the room.

" _Dad!"_ Karori mused as she saw Kagome pointing aggressively at him. "What are you _doing?_ "

"I'm trying to watch Ninja Warrior, but she keeps ringing that damn bell!" he hissed back, not even looking at her.

"That means she wants something!"

"Well what? What does she want?"

Kagome rang the bell again and her grandfather finally looked at her and she held the board out in front of her with both hands, her head pulsing in anger. "Put the news back on? But they show nothing but bad stuff there, stuff that you shouldn't have in your head. Why don't you go lay back down?"

"Dad, Kagome came down here to watch TV. You can't take that away from her." She reached over and took the remote from him and he starting fussing as she handed it back to her daughter. Kagome changed it back to the news channel.

"This is so boring. If you wanted to learn this nonsense, go to school!"

Kagome huffed and hurled the remote across the room, narrowly missing the old man before she gathered her blankets around her and angrily walked upstairs.

"See that? That's the attitude I'm talking about. That girl needs to learn some damn manners!" she heard him yelling as she walked into her room, closing the door and settling in her bed. ' _Stupid Jiji_.'

She opened the Spotify app in her phone. Inuyasha had allowed her access to his premium membership and they frequently sent music to each other. She put on her playlist and started going through her pictures from the weekend at the Siren remake event. Ayame had emailed the pictures to everyone and Kagome felt at ease as she went through them, laughing at the pictures of the boys in the cutouts of the Shibito monsters: Sesshomaru in place of the _Sam_ character, Kouga as the little girl, _Bella_ , and Inuyasha and Miroku as the Shibito nurses.

There were random pictures taken of them standing in lines, at the food stands, and on the hayride. Kagome blushed seeing the pictures of her between Inuyasha's legs on the hayride with his arms snuggling protectively around her. She was staring off into the distance, looking amused and terrified, but he looked completely at ease, smiling warmly at the camera. Feeling a strong blush creeping across her face, she set the image as her home screen wallpaper.

* * *

"You know, sometimes being the nice guy is a real pain in the ass." Inuyasha grumbled as he hauled his backpack over his shoulder. Everyone was on their way to their final period and since Ayame didn't have spare like Inuyasha did, she decided not to accompany him to Kagome's house.

At least that's what they told the others. Ayame was never planning to go with him in the first place. It was a pretense so no one would pester him and ask so many questions about him visiting Kagome. He'd gone through all of Kagome's classes, collecting her homework and classwork that she missed and was now carrying her textbooks along with his own.

"Hey, imagine what it'll be like when you two finally become a couple and this becomes an every day thing," Ayame grinned.

"Well in that case, I guess I should be looking forward to it." he rolled his eyes. "And I guess I should be thanking you for this."

"Any time, Inu. I know Kouga is a real pain in the ass but don't let him deter you from your affairs."

"Yeah, and his little comments about Kagome are really getting on my nerves." He grimaced. "I know he has a very sexual relationship with you, but that's not what I'm in it for."

"Well obviously," Ayame rolled her eyes. "That's what I've always respected about you. That's probably why Kikyo tried to switch sides. She wanted the _D."_ she grinned and Inuyasha chuckled.

"We dated for like an hour," he exaggerated, "I wasn't about to let her see this glorious body so quickly." he teased as she elbowed him.

"Shut up, Andre the Giant." She shook her head. "So how are you gonna break it to Kagome's grandfather that you're just dropping off homework?"

He shrugged. "'Hi, my name is Inuyasha. I'm one of Kagome's classmates and I'm here to give her the work she missed today.' It's not hard, ya know."

"Have you _met_ her granddad? He's kind of a... psycho..."

Inuyasha raised a brow at her. "Psycho?"

"Okay not a psycho, but he's one of those old people who looks down on our generation and thinks we're all horny, gang-affiliated thugs and whatnot. He doesn't trust young men at all. He's crazy." she grimaced.

"That bad, huh?"

"Unfortunately. Ask Sango if you don't believe me. Guy's a nut job."

He stuffed his hands into his jacket with a pensive expression. Today went on too slow without Kagome. All day he'd been sorely tempted to text her and ask how she was doing, but didn't wanna interrupt her if she was resting. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to see her because of her prejudiced grandfather.

Bidding Ayame a fond farewell, he gave her a quick hug before he bolted out to the parking lot to his car.

"Inuyasha?" he heard a voice call from a few feet away. He turned to see Kikyo standing there with a small smile. "Heading home?"

' _God dammit, what now?'_ He pursed his lips. "Something like that, why?"

"Do you mind giving me a ride? I'll pay you for the trouble. I'm in a bit of a hurry."

He hesitated, his finger on the button on the alarm. "I'm actually not going home. I have to make a detour."

She gave him puppy eyes. "Please? It's not far from here."

He bit his lip. He wanted to say no, but his polite nature got the best of him. "Fine, where are you going?"

She buckled up as she got in the car. Inuyasha grimaced while he eyed her sitting there. It didn't look right. He'd much rather it was Kagome in that seat. "I have to be at the bubble tea place on Shinjuko."

"That's only a couple blocks. Why do you need a ride?" he raised a brow as he started the engine. It was such a short drive, they'd be there in less than two minutes.

"I got a job there," she explained. "Today is my first day and I wanna make a good impression by being early."

"Oh, congratulations," he mumbled, internally hoping she didn't expect a ride every day she had work. Kikyo eyed his backpack on the floor between her feet. "Someone has a lot of homework today."

"Not all of that is for me."

"Oh?"

"I'm delivering homework to a friend."

"A friend?" Kikyo's voice turned sour. "You mean that _American_ girl?" Inuyasha glared at her through the side of his eyes.

"She's Japanese-American, born right here in Tokyo. Why do you say it like that?"

Kikyo was quiet for a moment. "I just... I don't get a good vibe from her." Inuyasha turned his head to face her fully.

"Something against Americans?"

"No, it's something else. Something I cant put my finger on. She's very different."

Inuyasha faced forward. "I like that she's different. I think she's special."

Kikyo scowled. " _Special?_ Honestly?"

"Yes, honestly." he was exasperated as Kikyo clicked her tongue. "Look, I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you insulting my friend. If you have a problem with her, then get out of my car."

"Jeez, what's eating you, Inuyasha? You like this girl or something?"

"Yeah," he snapped. "I do. What's it to you? We broke up years ago."

She was quiet again. "I just never thought I'd see you going for someone like her."

Inuyasha's eyebrows shot up. What on earth was _that_ supposed to mean? "Someone like her? I think she's a very nice girl. And she's fun and smart and really pretty. I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you talk down on her."

She hesitated. "I should apologize. I'm sorry, Inu."

"Yeah, whatever." He rolled his eyes. ' _Here comes another attempt to get back with the group._ '

"And I'm sorry that I pushed you away for Kouga. I don't know what got into me."

 _'Yup.' He_ raised a brow at her. "What are you getting at?"

She sighed. "I just.. feel like... I let go of something so amazing. I had a big group of friends who loved going out and having fun, but I ruined it by trying to steal Kouga. And most importantly, I abandoned you. You're a very wonderful person. Any girl would be lucky to have you. I'm an idiot for letting you get away."

Inuyasha was silent as he pulled up to the restaurant she worked at, not bothering to respond. She didn't sound very sincere, and if he knew her like he thought he knew her, she was just saying these things to get in his good graces. She'd been trying to maintain a half-ass friendship with him since Ayame attacked her. Kikyo turned to stare it him. "Well?"

"Well what?" he still wasn't looking at her.

"You're not gonna say anything after what I just told you? I still have feelings for you, ya know." she snapped.

"What _should_ I say? 'It's okay, I forgive you, let's try it again'? I don't think so, Kikyo. I told you I like someone else. You had your chance, and after several failed attempts to seduce me, you tried to fuck Kouga on numerous occasions _while we were dating_."

"Well at least Kouga would've went for it if it weren't for that insufferable redhead. They've been off and on for ages, so I didn't think it was a big deal!" she was yelling now.

"This is why. This is why no one trusts you anymore! Everything has to be about what you want." He gripped the steering wheel, trying to control his temper.

She turned up her chin defiantly. "Just remember this, Inuyasha." She tried to place one of her hands over his but he swatted her away. She glared at him. "I'm here if you need me for anything. Really."

He didn't say anything and reached across her lap, pulling the door handle and pushing the door open. Kikyo gaped at him in shock.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she whispered.

"Let me ask you something. If Kagome was with me right now, would you have approached me in the parking lot?" He glared back at her.

Kikyo bit her lip. "Yes, I would."

"You're a fucking liar. Get out of my car."

"Why won't you give me a chance to be better to you?" she whined. "Putting me, your former friend, on the back burner for an American nobody that you just met?"

"Her name is _Kagome_ ," he pounded his fist on the steering wheel, making her jump as the horn honked loudly. "If you don't get the _fuck_ out of my car, I will _personally_ remove you from it."

Kikyo maintained her shocked expression as she got out and stared at him from the curb.

"One more thing," he muttered and she raised a brow at him. "I don't need your money or anything else you have to offer. I'd appreciate it if you never spoke to me again." With that, he drove off, leaving Kikyo standing dumbfounded on the sidewalk.

* * *

Inuyasha pulled up to the shrine, allowing his excitement for seeing Kagome to take over his irritation for Kikyo. Gathering his backpack, he straightened out his uniform and checked himself in the visor mirror. Popping a mint into his mouth for good measure, he jumped out of the car and ascended the massive staircase.

His heart pounded as he knocked on the door and heard muffled shouting from inside. He tried to hide his amused expression as a short old man opened the door, glaring daggers as he looked Inuyasha from head to toe.

"Who the hell are you?" he snapped and Inuyasha was taken aback.

 _'Ah well, Ayame did warn me._ ' He gave a warm smile as he bowed. "My name is Takahashi Inuyasha. I'm one of Kagome's classmates. I'm here to deliver the work she missed today."

"Give it here, boy," he extended his arms to take the books and Inuyasha's face fell. He was hoping he'd be able to go inside and see her, but if he wanted to get in the man's good graces, he'd have to respect him. He shrugged off his backpack and was about to unzip it when he heard another voice.

"Oh, Inuyasha!" Karori smiled as she appeared in the doorway. "Dad, why don't you go watch your game show?"

"This little whipper snapper says he's a friend of Kagome. Says he has school stuff for her."

"Yes, this is the boy that takes her to school. We went over this, Dad." Karori gave Inuyasha an apologetic smile as she _shoo_ 'd the old man away. "Won't you come in?" She led him into the kitchen away from the grumpy sage...

"Thank you." He grinned. "I brought Kagome's work that she missed. How is she feeling?"

"She's better. Her fever went down a bit but her throat is very sore. She can't talk." She gave Inuyasha and ironic smirk that he immediately understood. Kagome must have told her mother that he knew her secret. "Her fever has gone down but I'm afraid she'll be out of school for at least another day. Would you like some food or a drink?"

"I'll have a glass of water, please." He pulled out a chair and sat down. "So... is she awake?"

"I believe so," Karori busied herself with popping the ice tray and putting a few cubes into his glass. "She was pretty irritated today. Her grandfather has been picking at her all day. I hope he wasn't too rude out there. He's been in the war and he's a very paranoid old man."

"Yeah, Ayame actually warned me of him," Inuyasha admitted sheepishly and Karori chuckled as she handed him his drink. "Would you like to go see Kagome? I'm sure she's dressed. She's been bundled up all day."

"Yeah, I'll go check on her." He stood up with his bag. "I hope you don't mind if I go over some school work with her to fill her in on what she missed."

"Oh, not at all!" she grinned widely. It was infectious. "Her room is up the stairs and the furthest down the hall on the left. Just knock before you go in."

"Thank you," he bowed slightly as he turned and headed up the stairs. He idly took in the décor of her home as he made his way through the house, noting the dark wood and yellow walls. Family portraits dotted the walls along with fake plants and dark furniture. He reached the top of the stairs and made his way down the hall. Kagome's room was quiet as he listened to see if she was awake. He almost considered going back downstairs, figuring she was asleep when he heard a bell ring from inside. He hesitated, then pushed the door open.

He was immediately met with a sweet smell. Kagome's smell. The room was small with girly decorations, a few dressers, a desk, and a large bed. Kagome was laying in the bed, propped up on her pillows, her face buried in her phone. She had earbuds in, and hadn't heard him enter. She looked a bit paler than usual, and her eyes had dark circles under them. He hair was an absolute mess, but he liked it. She was dressed in a large, fluffy pale blue robe with red and purple lilies dotting it. Even in this state, she was beautiful to him. Perhaps even more so than usual since he hadn't seen her all day.

He tried to hide a smile as he watched her swipe through her phone. Finally her eyes glanced up and widened seeing him standing in the doorway. She immediately sat up and pulled out her ear buds, staring at him in shock.

"Hi." He grinned at her. She didn't say anything and continued to gape.

"I came to deliver your schoolwork today." He explained and Kagome mouthed _ah_ as she pointed to her throat, making a face. "Yeah, your mother told me you can't talk. Kinda ironic, eh?" he teased and she shook her head and smiled.

"Mind if I sit?" he ushered toward the bed and she nodded, shifting to pull up her knees closer to her torso as he sat down. He went through his backpack, explaining to her all the class work she missed and sat with her while she did her homework. They sat up for such a long time that Karori came into the room after a while to give Inuyasha a plate of food and Kagome a bowl of soup.

Even though she wasn't talking, she was animatedly responding with gestures and faces that made clear everything she wanted to say. Occasionally, she would write on her board if she wanted to say something specific that couldn't be communicated through gestures.

At one point she wrote on the board _'How was your day?'_ and he blushed in response, making her raise a brow in amusement.

"It was long," he admitted. "I've missed you today."

Kagome's eyes widened and she looked away in embarrassment before picking up the board and writing on it. She handed it to him and he read it, his gaze snapping to hers as he gave her a small smile.

' _I've missed you, too.'_

He scooted a bit closer to her, gently placing his hand on her cheek and she leaned into his palm. She was a bit surprised at how at ease she was with his intimate gesture, but then again, she wasn't verbally communicating so maybe that took a lot of pressure off her.

"Your fever has gone down," he mumbled as he stared into her eyes. Her lips quirked up a bit into a smile as he caressed her cheekbone with the pad of his thumb. He noticed her eyes flicker to his lips briefly before she looked into his eyes again.

He couldn't help himself. He wanted to kiss her.

Not caring at all that she was sick, he brought his other hand up to cup the other side of her face as he leaned in slowly, making it clear to her what she was going to do. She sat perfectly still and her eyes widened as his eyes closed and he leaned in to ravish her plump lips...

Then his phone started to ring.

Grumbling in irritation, he gingerly released Kagome's face and pulled his phone out of his pocket and his eyes widened seeing his mother's number.

"Mother?" he answer.

"Inuyasha, it's going on eight o' clock. Where on earth are you?" she sounded worried. Inuyasha stiffened. He'd been so caught up with Kagome, he didn't realize he was with her for so long. He glanced out her window and sure enough, it was dark out.

"I'm, uh... at a friend's house." he said, embarrassed and Kagome raised a brow at him in amusement.

"Miroku?" she pressed.

"No, a different friend. She was out sick today so I brought her the work she missed and helped her with it."

"A female friend? Is this the girl Rin was telling me about by any chance?" she sounded amused and Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Trust Rin to run her mouth about it to his family. She basically _was_ family...

"Yes, Mother, jeez. Her name is Kagome. Can I go now?"

His mother giggled. "Sure, I wouldn't wanna interrupt."

Inuyasha shook his head as he hung up. She kinda already did interrupt... Glancing apologetically at Kagome, he stood up. "I'm sorry. I have to get going. My mother has been wondering where I am."

Kagome nodded as she closed up her books. She had previously instructed him to leave them so he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of carrying them all again.

"I don't suppose you'll be in school tomorrow?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. Kagome shook her head sadly and wrote on the board: ' _Can I see you tomorrow?'_ Inuyasha smiled. "Of course, as long as I don't get called in for work. I'll drop off any work you have right after school, okay?"

She gave him a bright smile and nodded happily. He playfully ruffled her hair and gave her a small wave and grabbed his backpack and walked out of the room.

On his way down the stairs, he heard soft footsteps thudding behind him and he glanced around to see Kagome two stairs above him. Like this, they were at eye level with each other and he raised a curious brow at her.

Before he knew it, she'd wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, her cheek pressed into his. His arms immediately went around her tiny waist as he hugged her tightly to him, breathing in the intoxicating scent of her hair and skin.

"I'm gonna miss you tomorrow," he mumbled quietly against her, hoping her grandfather wasn't in the living room to witness their embrace. He pulled back a bit to look into her eyes.

She surprised them both by cupping his face the way he cupped hers earlier. In a soft, but clear voice, she whispered: "I'll miss you too." With that, she softly pecked him on the cheek.

 **Oh God, the fluff...**

 **Please review! Reviews make me so happy!**


	13. Plans

"Ugh. My roots are showing. Time for a touch up." Ayame groaned as she combed her fingers through her hair, staring into Kagome's body mirror. She, Rin and Sango were having a girls' weekend at their friend's house. It was becoming the norm to do a slumber party over the weekends these days at Kagome's house, seeing as she had the largest house out of the four friends. Kagome stared in amusement as Ayame braided her own hair, the deep red slowly fading to her natural raven hair at the roots. She always found Ayame to be quite... exotic. Gauged ears, red hair, green eyes.

… A third nipple. Kagome blushed at her train of thought. Her friends really were rubbing off on her, as she sometimes found herself having quite indecent thoughts about the simplest of things.

"Better get those done before Christmas Eve." Rin yawned while she stretched out along the length of the floor. She and Ayame usually slept on the floor with blankets in Kagome's room while Kagome and Sango shared the bed.

Kagome's mother had previously stated that she was going to celebrate Christmas the good old-fashioned American way, and that Kagome's and Souta's friends were more than welcome to attend for the evening festivities. Kagome was a bit flustered at the thought of co-hosting a party, as it was a bit out of her comfort zone to interact with people while trying to make them feel welcome in her home. Luckily for her, Karori had personally told Rin, Ayame and Sango about the Christmas party and all three girls were glad to join. Kagome decided to leave it to Rin to tell the guys about the party, seeing as Rin was usually the one to take charge with out of school gatherings.

However the day before the party, which was obviously Christmas Eve, was known to be an exclusively romantic day in Japan. It was more of a holiday for couples to be all mushy and romantic and go out to restaurants, spend quality time together in a hotel, or go to see the city sites like the shopping districts and light shows. In America, Karori tried to be as festive as possible when it came to American holidays, usually because she loved any excuse to cook such a large amount of food or get Kagome out of the house and around some people and excitement, as she was usually cooped up at home or in her therapy sessions.

Sango raised her brows. "You're spending Christmas Eve with Kouga?" She asked and Ayame grinned and nodded. "So are you guys officially together?"

"I... _think_ so?" Ayame's voice was uncertain.

"How do you not know if you're together?" Rin was curt.

"Well... We still spend a lot of time together and do _things_ and he still tells me he loves me–"

"Wait, he _says_ he loves you?" Sango shrieked. "How long has this been going on?"

"A while. He's told me years ago and kinda chooses when to and when not to. I think he's waiting for the holiday to ask me out." Ayame was grinning. "Does Miroku tell you he loves you?"

"We've been there," Sango grinned back at her. "And he said he has a surprise for me on Christmas Eve. I can't wait to see what it is."

"Maybe he wants to do it?" Ayame giggled. "He's gonna set the mood with candles and music and give you a _massage_."

"We all know he wants to do it, but does _Sango_ want to do it?" Rin narrowed her eyes and smirked at Sango. She bit her lip and shrugged. Kagome couldn't contain her gasp and started giggling.

"Maybe," Sango whispered.

"I'm happy I have at least one female friend who's as sexually active as I am," Ayame clicked her tongue. "You _virgins_ are a pain to be with sometimes."

"Well excuse me for being an innocent." Kagome rolled her eyes. Sango blushed.

"Just because Miroku and I haven't actually had _intercourse_ , doesn't mean we haven't done other things..."

Kagome gaped at Sango's contrite expression. "What? _What?_ What have you _done?_ "

"Don't be so coy, Kagome." Sango giggled.

"Actually, now that we're on the subject of surprises and Christmas Eve..." Rin tapped her fingertips against each other and rubbed her hands together. "I _do_ have a little surprise for you ladies." She made a show of clearing her throat. "Sesh and I are gonna go to a concert and we have reservations for a rooftop restaurant for Christmas Eve... _b_ _ut_ before we partake in any holiday festivities, we have to get everything situated at the new apartment..."

"Apartment?" Ayame and Kagome said in unison and Sango raised her eyebrows. Rin smirked, nodding her head.

"Sesh and I found an apartment, and because they're fixing up a black mold problem in certain apartments in the building, we get the first month free."

"There's a black mold problem?" Kagome gulped. "You sure it's safe there?"

"Yes, yes, they've had no complaints for a while now but they had to knock out some ceilings and walls to fix the damage. Sesh and I get a brand new kitchen, and we're moving in Thursday." She grinned.

"What's it like?" Sango asked. "Have you seen it?"

"Yes, we actually went to look because the whole area is being gentrified. It _was_ a pretty shabby, rundown neighborhood but it's looking up. It's closer to the school and Sesh's job, there's a laundromat within the building, a market right in the vicinity. The bedrooms are _huge_ and there's a nice-sized living room and the new kitchen plans include an island counter!"

"I wanna see it!" Ayame squealed excitedly.

"That's not even the best part. The master bedroom comes with a walk-in closet and it's own full bathroom." Rin continued.

"How many bedrooms are there?" Kagome raised a brow.

"Two."

Ayame smirked, clasping her hands together. "Ah, so you and Sesshomaru can make your dream sex dungeon within the privacy of your own home. How sweet."

Rin raised a brow. "Sex dungeon? No. That would be the sanctuary known as _our_ bedroom. The other one will be Inuyasha's room."

Kagome choked on her drink as she sputtered. "He's moving in with you guys?"

"Yeah, why? He never told you?"

"No..." Kagome said uncertainly and Rin narrowed her eyes then grinned.

"Good. He kept his word then. I told him I wanted to be the one to break the news or I'd shave his head. Nothing against, you Kagome. I'm just happy that he kept his promise to his soon-to-be-baby-sister-in-law." She beamed and Kagome couldn't help but chuckle at her friend's outrageous antics. What was with Rin and threatening to shave heads? Kagome shook her head, amused.

"...Just like _I_ promised not to spoil _his_... plans..." Rin said mysteriously and Kagome raised a brow. Inuyasha had plans for Christmas Eve? In Japan Christmas was more of a romantic holiday than a festive Christian holiday. Who did he have plans with? Kagome's heart sank.

"Inuyasha's?"

Rin's face split in two with her grin. "I know what he's planning for you for Christmas and I can't wait until you see it!"

' _For me?'_ "What? What did he get me?" Kagome demanded, grabbing Rin's hand and she shook her head, doing a motion of zipping her mouth shut.

"Jeez, Rin," Sango groaned. "If you're not gonna tell her, don't even bring it up."

"I _know,_ " Ayame complained. "Now I'm curious too!"

"I know, I'm such a rapacious bitch, aren't I?" Rin did a mock evil laugh as she hugged herself and Kagome rolled her eyes.

"So, Kagome," Ayame started excitedly. "I know in America they exchange gifts for Christmas. What are you getting for Inuyasha?"

Kagome smiled. "The Siren Blood Curse game. He hasn't stopped talking about the game since we went to the convention. It took a couple weeks to save up for it but I hope he likes it."

"Aww, that's sweet. Maybe he'll want to... play with you..." Sango trailed off sluggishly and the girls giggled as Kagome tried to hide a smile.

"I can't talk to you guys without some kind of sexual innuendo in the conversation, can I?"

"That's not true!" Sango exclaimed.

* * *

"Okay, unusual fetishes?" Kouga asked. "Don't act like a fucking saint, Miroku. We've all seen the tentacle porn you had in your DVD player."

"I... guess I like tentacle porn then?" Miroku didn't know how to respond as he leaned back in Inuyasha's office recliner while Inuyasha packed his clothes. Kouga was sitting cross legged in the middle of Inuyasha's queen sized bed playing a video game. They were all anticipating the move so that they could go to his house whenever they pleased to play his new game system without having to act like a saint in front of Inuyasha's father. He had to be the single most intimidating person Kouga had ever met, and looking at him made it plain to see where Inuyasha and Sesshomaru picked up their sharp, angular facial features and staggering height. Inuyasha's parents were completely supportive of their sons' decision to get their own place. They were both legal adults who had had jobs, drivers licenses, and a strict upbringing which allowed them to adapt a sense of responsibility on their own.

Plus... living with Rin would be like having a much smaller and younger mother.

Inuyasha hadn't originally planned on moving in with his brother and practically sister-in-law, but after Rin reviewed the revised plans for the apartment, and at the price they'd received it at, it would be foolish for him not to. He wasn't against moving away from his parents and taking up responsibility for his own life in the least, and it wasn't like he'd never see his parents again. With his income added to Sesshomaru's and Rin's, it'd make the apartment cheaper if it were to be split among more people.

He settled on packing just his clothing for the time being, leaving out only a few outfits for the week up to Thursday and his school uniforms. He arranged to having a moving company transport his dressers and bed and whatnot to the apartment the very day they were to move in.

In a sense, he dreaded the idea of having his own place. Kouga had already become quite pushy about the space–though he hadn't seen the apartment yet–and Inuyasha didn't want Kouga to think that his new apartment would be a _love shack_ for him and Ayame whenever Kouga's mother was home.

In the back of his mind, though, he was hoping that at some point in the distant future–maybe–when (if) he and Kagome started dating, that she'd move in, too. He tried not to think too much on his future with Kagome. Not that he couldn't see them being in a relationship, as it was very well progressing to that, but he didn't wanna get ahead of himself on false futures that would possibly lead to him getting his hopes let down.

"Inuyasha?" Kouga demanded and Inuyasha sat on the edge of his bed to glare at his friend as he continued to badger him with sexual questions. He was tempted to text Kagome and ask how her night was going, but knew that the girls would be over, so he decided to let her enjoy her girls' night while Miroku and Kouga crashed at his place for the weekend. Sesshomaru was also home, but usually didn't bother to be in Kouga's company unless Rin and the others were around.

"I don't know. I don't really watch porn that often." He paused. "And if I do, it's not tentacle porn."

"What _do_ you watch?" Miroku raised a curious brow. Inuyasha rolled his eyes heavenward, not wanting to have this conversation for fear of it being repeated to Kagome.

"I don't know, normal porn?"

"He probably watches cuckold porn." Kouga said to Miroku and he laughed.

"Well what do _you_ watch?" Inuyasha demanded.

"I love lesbians. I'd love to have a threesome but Ayame isn't all for it. I can't say I blame her, though. I don't like to share either."

"What are your plans for her for the Holidays?" Miroku raised a brow.

" _Well,_ I wanna pick out a body piece for her to wear and I'm gonna take her out to dinner and get a motel room for a night."

"Are you gonna ask her out?"

"I think I might."

Inuyasha's gaze snapped to Kouga. "Holy shit. That was unexpected."

"Well, things are going really well for us now, and I can't deny that her putting on some weight from her birth control made her a little curvier. I love a thick woman." Kouga stroked his chin, staring off into space. "Plus, we've been going at it like rabbits. Sex is one of the biggest factors of a happy relationship and I think we're both very happy in that field. And she's just _fun_."

"I'm happy that you're happy, friend." Miroku said sincerely, smiling at Kouga. "I, on the other hand, am gonna take Sango out to a concert. I got tickets to a cover band that plays the kind of music she likes, and I got her a promise ring."

"Are you gonna tell her you love her?" Inuyasha asked distractedly as he examined his face in the mirror. It was time for a shave.

"I already did. We've been dating long enough that it's appropriate by now," he raised a sarcastic brow.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Well you never say it around us. I was just wondering."

"I like to try to keep most of the mushy stuff between me and my woman. So what about you? What are you gonna do for Kagome?"

"I'm not saying anything in front of you two idiots." he growled. At Miroku's expression, he continued. "Kouga will blab about it in front of Kagome because he doesn't know how to keep a fucking secret, and you'll tell Sango, and Sango will tell Kagome."

Miroku opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Kouga: "Hey, I can be discreet!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes again. "Oh yeah, discretion just _becomes_ you. Shut the fuck up."

"Sango wouldn't breech trust like that." Miroku said. "She would keep a secret, I know."

"Oh? But you would breech trust by telling Sango." Inuyasha's stare pierced into Miroku's soul as his face fell. "No comeback?"

Miroku was quiet.

"I thought so. I'm happy I decided to wait to tell you idiots about my moving until this weekend. _Rin_ threatened _me_ not to say anything so I _know_ you two couldn't know about it, either."

Kouga chuckled. "You let _Rin_ threaten you?"

"You don't necessarily let someone threaten you..."

"Shut up, Miroku. You know what I meant."

"Do I?"

"Fuck you."

"Not until Inuyasha gets his own apartment. Then I'll fuck you guys whenever you want."

Inuyasha shook his head, watching Kouga play some fighting game. "You guys aren't gonna be doing any fucking of any kind in my apartment. Rin won't allow it, Sesshomaru _definitely_ won't allow it, and I don't want your potential children all over my stuff."

"I hope they fuck in your bed." Kouga grinned and Inuyasha threw a hat at him. "I'm sorry, should we put on cuckold porn so you feel more at home when you get there?"

"I don't watch cuckold porn." His eyes were closed, trying to control his temper. "Why on earth am I your friend when you're such a dick?"

"Because you need someone to take your frustration out on?" Miroku piped up.

"In that case, fucking Kagome into oblivion would–" Kouga's sentence was cut short as Inuyasha gripped his shirt and pushed him harshly off the bed. He stared up at Inuyasha with a bewildered expression. "The fuck, man?!"

"Yeah, you're right, Miroku. That actually helped." Inuyasha grinned at Kouga. "Thanks, _buddy_."

* * *

Inuyasha sat in his Creative Writing class waiting eagerly for Kagome to get there. Because the girls stayed with her over the weekend, they all had taken the train to school together and he didn't get a chance to see her that morning. He very briefly saw her that morning when he left the biology room, but he was on his way to a class and didn't have to stop and talk to her.

He was nervous and excited about his plans for the holiday. He'd assumed that Kagome wouldn't be with any of the girls that weekend since they all had plans with their significant other, and Kagome had no significant other, so she was all his for the taking. All she had to do was say yes and their plans would fall into place.

He was a bit nervous about her reaction, though. She'd been very warm and welcome to most of his interactions with her, even the ones bordering on intimate such as brushing her hair behind her ears or locking arms as he escorted her through the halls at school. It felt like they were pretty much dating at this point, but he was determined to make it official. He just prayed that she didn't have a nervous breakdown like she did at the guest house some time ago. That was, thankfully, the only time she ever had that kind of reaction to his physical interactions with her.

He sat up ramrod straight as Sango entered the room, followed by Kagome soon after. Her hair was neatly braided and swept over her left shoulder along with her bangs and she had small silver hoop earrings in her ears. She looked lovely. He greeted her warmly as she took her seat and was about to engage her in a conversation when the teacher interrupted him to start the class.

He found himself rather impatiently shaking his leg and tapping his pen on his notebook as the teacher went through the lesson, and she stopped at one point to ask him to stop the distracting noise. He tried, _really_ tried, to sit still, but he was too jittery with excitement. He found it difficult to pay attention to whatever script he was supposed to be following along with in the book and tried to resist the urge to look at Kagome.

The teacher opted for _reading tag_ , where a student would read one page of the book then call on someone else to read the next. Usually when they did this, the students would call on their own friends to read, so he knew he had time to daydream until eventually someone called on Sango or Kagome. In the mean time, he continued to play out his fantasies in his head of his upcoming plans, should Kagome agree to them, which he was quite certain she would. She never denied him when he asked her to go places, whether it was stopping at a store on the way to drop her off at home, or inviting her out to lunch with him, Rin and Sesshomaru.

Eventually, someone called on Sango to read and, knowing Sango would call on him next, he scanned through the page to find the spot she was on and followed along until she called on him. He didn't even register what he was reading as he read it, but his voice rang loud and clear through the class as he breezed through the text and called on a random student, Amari, to deter anyone from potentially calling on Kagome.

Taking his opportunity, he glanced back at Kagome in time to see her eyes glance away from him and back at her book. He glanced back at his book and subtly cleared his throat, so as not to get caught ogling Kagome by his teacher, then glanced back at her. Her head was angled down toward her book, but her eyes finally flicked up to see him peeking at her over his shoulder and he smiled at her. She bit her lip to hide her own smile and he raised a brow, still smirking at her before she shook her head and looked back at her book.

' _What are you up to, silly Inuyasha?'_ she thought to herself as he continued to occasionally look back at her, not caring if she caught him staring or not. She flushed with pleasure each time he did, knowing he was unashamed of his physical attraction to her, though she doubted he was just looking at her because he thought she was pretty. He had an excited, mischievous glint in his eyes and it made her excited, too.

The bell rang, effectively ending the class, and as Kagome gathered her things, Inuyasha hopped over his desk and chair so that he was standing directly in front of her as he grinned down at her. She playfully raised an amused brow at him as he braced both of his hands on her desk.

"And how are you today, Short Stuff?"

"Peachy." She grinned and he cocked his head to the side. Sango watched their interaction in amusement.

"You busy?" he asked quietly, yet his voice still somehow held the same excitement that his eyes did.

"Well, I _do_ have school today..." she responded as she stood up and scooted around him and he followed her closely, grinning.

" _Well_ , when you get a chance," he leaned down to whisper in her ear from behind, "I'd like to talk to you about something." She got welcome chills down her spine at the deep, quiet tone of his voice. She hoped he didn't notice her slight shiver.

"Am I in trouble?" She asked rather cutely as they entered the hallway. Sango tried to hide her smile and went ahead of Kagome to give her _privacy_ while she tended to Inuyasha.

He shook his head. "No, not at all. I just want a moment of your time to ask you a couple questions." He paused. "In private. Nothing major."

Kagome narrowed her eyes as she looked him up and down, trying to be playful about her speculation but internally swooning at his very _masculine_ physique clad in his uniform. "What are you up to, Inuyasha?"

He grinned and shook his head at her. "You'll find out. You're riding with me after school, right?" Kagome nodded her head. "Cool. I'll see you at lunch. We're gonna be late."

Kagome's face fell as she looked around and sure enough, the hallway was almost empty. She turned and scurried up the stairs, huffing in exhaustion while Inuyasha watched her in amusement.

* * *

"I wanna have a house warming party for Chirstmas, New Year, and most importantly, my birthday. I wanna combine all three into one party with optional gift exchanges for whoever wants to do that, cake and décor for _moi,_ and the New Year countdown. I'm aiming for New Years Eve, since most of us have plans for Christmas." Rin was sitting at the table detailing the plans for her upcoming holiday party (apparently her birthday was also a holiday) with everyone when Inuyasha, Kagome and Sango reached the table with their food. Rin had a way of silencing a room, or in this case, a table whenever she had an announcement to make. Even Kouga was listening attentively.

"If anyone wants to invite anyone who is not currently sitting at this table, please bring any and all guests names to me for approval and reservation." Rin was all business and Miroku raised a brow.

"We need your approval of who shows up?"

Rin's smile dripped with sarcasm. "Well, I don't know if you knew this, but my name is on the lease for this apartment and therefore it is _my_ apartment, and I think I should have a say in who shows up in _my_ home to attend _my_ party."

"Idiot," Sango muttered.

"Anywho, the reason for this quite drastic change to the rules in the party is mainly because of you," Rin shot a glare at Kouga. "Because the last time I gave you the freedom to invite friends of your own to one of my parties, you invited Ginta and Hakkaku, who flooded the toilet, tried to fix it, broke it, and fled without a word to anyone."

"Not my fault those two are complete idiots," Kouga muttered.

"They probably take after you." Inuyasha grinned while Kouga shot him a dirty look.

"And I don't want anyone trying to invite Kikyo, either." Sesshomaru said. Inuyasha raised a brow.

"I know I mentioned it to Sesh, but did I tell you guys that I had a run in with her about month ago?"

Kouga frowned. "No, what happened?"

"She asked me to give her a ride to work, and when I did, she started talking shit." He said, glancing at Kagome and Her face fell. She certainly didn't look happy. His stomach dropped.

"You gave Kikyo a ride? Where was Kagome?" Sango sounded annoyed, echoing Kagome's sentiments.

"She was sick that day." He glanced at Kagome again and she was grimacing. He didn't realize it would sound that bad until he actually _said_ it out loud. "I only gave her a ride because she asked me; it's not like I stopped her and offered her a ride. She snuck up on me in the parking lot," he added, hoping to get back in her good books.

"What was she saying?" Ayame asked.

"She apologized for cheating on me and she was bitching about my particular taste in women." He made a face.

Kouga chuckled. "She's jealous of Pip Squeak, isn't she?" He winked at Kagome and she blushed strongly as Inuyasha shrugged, nonchalant, but couldn't hide his smirk.

"Most likely. But I told her I didn't want her to talk to me anymore."

"It is _about_ damn time!" Ayame grinned and reached across the table the pump her fist against Inuyasha's as he grinned. "This is all the more reason to celebrate!"

"Just to be sure..." Rin continued from earlier, "I'm not intruding on anyone's plans, am I? I mean for the holidays?" She was looking at Kagome and she shook her head.

"I have plans on Christmas, but not New Years."

"What are you doing for Christmas?" Inuyasha asked her, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice as Kagome's lividus eyes slid over to him.

"Mama wants to celebrate Christmas the way we did in America."

"Oh? Like what?"

"We exchange gifts, have a feast, watch Christmas movies, and enjoy family company."

"Yeah, her mom even decorated the house," Ayame giggled. "You must have really been festive in America, right?"

Kagome grinned shyly. "If it's an excuse to decorate and make a huge dinner, my mother is all for it."

"Kagome's throwing a party on Christmas." Rin grinned as Kagome's eyes widened while the guys turned to look at her in shock. "Well, actually... her _mother_ is throwing a party, but she's allowing Kagome and her brother to invite friends, so, obviously, Kagome is allowing all of us to join except Kouga."

Kouga gave Kagome a dirty look and cursed under his breath and Kagome sighed. "It's a joke, Kouga. You're invited," she told him quietly.

"So what can we expect at this party?" Miroku asked and Kagome shrugged.

"I guess all the normal stuff you'd expect at a normal party?"

"Should we all bring gifts?"

"No, it's mostly just festivities. Gift exchanges aren't necessary, but feel free to get me a little something since my birthday is coming up." Rin smiled sweetly at Miroku and he rolled his eyes.

"Woman, your brithday is January 9th. Plus, you have your party lined up soon. You can wait."

"January thirteenth," Sesshomaru corrected and Rin kissed his cheek as he smirked at her.

Inuyasha peeked at Kagome through the corner of his eye and saw her looking directly at him with an unreadable expression. He sensed that she was still annoyed that he'd recently had an interaction with Kikyo. Not that Kagome ever fully understood the circumstances of his relationship with her, but he wished she wouldn't dwell on it. He wasn't exactly emotionally invested in his relationship with her; it was more of a favor to a friend that liked him. There was hardly any physical intimacy involved aside from arm locking and occasional kissing. It wasn't like they had sex. That was good, right? He shook his head. Kagome was better off not knowing the details of his previous relationship with Kikyo. Besides, it was in the past and lasted a very short time and he was over it and ready to focus on his future with Kagome now.

The day dragged again after lunch until they were in their gym period. Kagome had opted to not speak to Inuyasha, mostly for fear that her overwhelming excitement and curiosity would cause her to have a breakdown. She was positive that he was going to ask her on a date for Christmas Eve, and while she was mentally all for it, she feared she would be emotionally unprepared. She had hung out with him outside of school quite a few times now, whether it was in the car on the way to and from school, or the occasional outing with his brother and sister (Rin), but she'd never truly been in a situation where she was out and about with no one but him.

And on such a romantic holiday, no less.

She was also concerned about his altercation with Kikyo. It annoyed her that he happened to give Kikyo a ride on the day she wasn't in school, and further still was quiet about it for so long. Was there more to the situation than he let on? She knew deep down that Inuyasha didn't have romantic feelings for Kikyo, but since he was the only person among her friends to tolerate her after the incident with Ayame, maybe he still had a soft spot for her, much to Kagome's dismay.

She was also annoyed to find that Kikyo talked down on her, and to Inuyasha, no less. Ever since her first day of school, Kikyo had been nothing but rude to Kagome for absolutely no reason. At first it was just teasing her for being an American, then it gradually progressed to blunt hostility after seeing Inuyasha becoming quite fond of Kagome. It was pretty common for Kagome to catch Kikyo glaring at her in homeroom or in the hallway or even in the cafeteria sometimes. It was unnerving, not in a way that Kagome was afraid of Kikyo, but more so that she had done nothing to deserve the dirty looks and general ire and jealousy from Kikyo. It wouldn't quite make sense for Kikyo to be jealous of Kagome for being close with Inuyasha, seeing as it was actually Kouga that Kikyo wanted. Maybe she was jealous that Kagome had fit in with the group so easily?

And to top it off, Kagome was vehemently annoyed with herself. She'd never experienced being jealous over a guy before. It was another one of those things that she was just now experiencing for herself after reading about it and seeing it on TV and in movies. And though Kagome had no reason to dislike Kikyo–aside from Kikyo's stuck up personality–she found that she was starting to dislike her a lot more than she anticipated she would. She had a gut feeling that her and Kikyo would have an altercation some day as well, and she truly dreaded the idea.

Gym was a welcome distraction from her thoughts, and she was able to tune out everyone else and forget about Inuyasha's existence for the time being. They'd moved on to archery in their gym class and Kagome once again found that she was quite impressive among her classmates. The students were instructed how to knock the arrow and hold the bow. There were six areas set up–3 to each class–where students would line up and take turns shooting at the targets on the opposite side of the gym, which was lined with a large net and six targets for the groups to shoot at.

Kagome was in the first group since the classes went in alphabetical order, and each student per group was given a quiver of arrows with their own colored feathers so they could differentiate who was who. Kagome had the yellow arrows in her group, Sango had green, Kouga had black–they were in the second group–and Inuyasha was in the third group of his class with blue-feathered arrows. Kagome came extremely close to the center of the target five out of eight times, while most students shot in the outer rings or missed the board completely, their arrows getting caught in the safety net.

At the end of the class, Kagome could feel Inuyasha staring at her as she removed her arm guard that protected her from being cut by the arrow feathers. She turned to face him and he was unexpectedly standing almost directly behind her making her jump a bit and he smiled softly, muttering an apology. Suddenly, Kagome felt an uneasy wave of guilt rush over her for ignoring him through the whole class. Was that fair? She didn't think it was. Thinking on it now, it seemed silly to be mad at him for something that happened almost two months ago. Hell, it's not like she was dating Inuyasha at the time or even now. She didn't have a right to get mad about his encounters with other females.

"Are you staying in the library today, or are you going straight home?" he asked her softly, still smiling and she couldn't help her answering smile.

"No, I wanna go home. I'd like a shower. I feel yucky."

Inuyasha nodded and suddenly looked slightly flushed and Kagome cocked her head to the side–a gesture that she likely picked up from him. "I'll meet you outside the locker rooms," he muttered and walked passed her before she could reply, disappearing into the boys' locker room. Kagome hustled to the girls' locker room, taking some of her medicine to steady her nerves. She'd made a mental promise to herself to not let her anxiety get the best of her, and she wanted to be ready for anything.

She briskly changed out of her gym clothes and into her uniform, smoothing out her collar and her skirt before ripping her hair out of it's braided bun and harshly brushing out the tangles so her her hung thick and straight down to her bum. She quickly applied some mascara and sprayed some body spray, hoping to mask her post-gym smell.

"How do I look?" she asked Sagno as her friend regarded her with amusement.

"Cute." Sango smiled. "Try not to fidget or touch your hair too much, take deep breaths, smile pretty and hold your own. You. Can. Do this." She gripped Kagome's slim shoulders, looking into her blue-gray eyes. She looked nervous but her eyes were determined.

"I feel like I'm being sent off to war or something," Kagome giggled unexpectedly and Sango couldn't help her answering chuckle.

"You kinda are. You're at war with yourself, between who you _used_ to be and who you _want_ to be. Do you like Inuyasha?"

Kagome blushed. "Yes..."

"Do you like Inuyasha?" Sango asked louder.

"Yes." Kagome said slightly louder, hoping the rest of the girls in the locker room weren't paying attention.

"Will you let your delicate condition get the best of you?"

"Of course not."

"Do you wanna let him get away?"

"No!"

"Do you wanna be happy with him?"

"Yes."

"Do you want him to be all yours and yours alone?"

" _Yes._ "

"Do you wanna spend Christmas Eve with him, and the rest of your life for as long as your relationship lasts?"

"YES!"

"Do you wanna lure his sexy ass to a hotel and conceive beautiful children with him?"

Kagome blanked. " _What?"_

Sango laughed. "Just teasing. You'll be fine. Have fun, kiddo." She winked as they walked to the door and exited the locker room. Sure enough, Inuyasha was there, leaning against the opposite wall. He'd removed his school blazer and had it slung over his one shoulder. He smiled and bid Sango farewell as she headed off in another direction.

Kagome tried to keep her cool as Inuyasha escorted her to their locker. He usually kept up some sort of conversation about almost anything in general as they walked, but today he was oddly silent as he placed his books on the floor of the locker and took Kagome's books from her to put them on the top shelf. As they walked out to the parking lot, she noticed that he didn't put his blazer back on, which was quite odd given the time of the year, but maybe he was just hot from their exertions in gym. She caught his eye over the top of the car before they got in. He looked nervous, but his eyes were very intense as he unlocked the car as they got in and buckled up.

"Anything you wanna listen to?" he asked her causally, placing his phone in the cup holder. It had become the norm for him to let her use his phone for the music app. Kagome always found comfort in him trusting her with his phone. It seemed to be such an issue with couples these days to hide things from each other on their phones.

' _At least I know I can trust him if we ever start dating,'_ she thought to herself as she browsed through his library, blushing at her thoughts and smiling.

"What are you thinking over there?" she heard him ask and saw him glance at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"You look all giddy. Did you have a nice day today?" he pondered, smiling.

"I would say it was a normal day." She bit her lip. It was a good day, apart from hearing that he'd had an altercation with Kikyo. "And you?"

He raised a brow. "What about me?"

She bit her lip again and stared straight ahead, having slight difficulty speaking to him in this delicate situation. _'When is he gonna ask me?'_ "I don't know... You said you wanted to talk to me earlier." She gripped the arm rest between them and Inuyasha noticed the slight tremor in her hand as he stopped at a red light.

"Yeah, about the holidays."

Kagome's heart free fell into her stomach. "What about the holidays?" she choked out, wincing as her voice broke a bit. ' _Steady now..._ '

Inuyasha looked embarrassed again then turned to look directly at her and his face changed. She found herself wondering what was going on in that pretty head of his. He suddenly looked determined. "Well I know the others have plans for the Eve and you're spending Christmas with your family and having a party later that night." He resumed driving and Kagome gulped.

"Yes..."

"You don't have plans for Christmas Eve." It wasn't a question as he glanced at her again raising a brow. "I was wondering if you'd wanna hang out with me on Christmas Eve."

Kagome's grip tightened on the arm rest as she stared out the windshield, trying to keep her emotions in check. She allowed herself to wallow in her intense sense of relief when she found that she could still speak, despite her pounding heart and the butterflies in her stomach.

He stopped again and turned to look at her. Kagome's eyes flickered over to him while she remained facing straight and she smiled _really_ small, but he noticed it.

"Yes," she mouthed inaudibly and Inuyasha grinned and placed his hand gently over hers on the arm rest.

"Thanks. I know you're a hermit," he teased and she giggled. He tightened his grip on her hand a bit. "...but I'll make it fun and you'll have a great time. _We'll_ have a great time."

"Are you gonna tell me what we'll be doing?" she asked excitedly.

"Nope. But I'm sure you'll like it. At least, I hope you will." he added quietly.

Kagome stared distractedly out the window, infinitely pleased that she didn't have a bad reaction to his asking her out. Even though he hadn't directly asked as a date, she was still excited to spend time with him for the holiday. "Whatever you have planned," she whispered to herself, but he heard her and glanced at her, "I'm sure I'll love it."

* * *

 **I wanted to get this out for Christmas Eve but I was _so_ drunk, and I've been busy with work, so here it is for New Years. Everyone have a safe, happy holiday!**

 **And as always, please review! :3**


	14. Admirers

Kagome sat in her homeroom, picking at her breakfast that Inuyasha had gotten for her, swinging her feet in her chair like a small child. She was in a really good mood, much more so than usual. That was the typical Inuyasha effect after spending a delightful morning playfully arguing with him and exchanging random banter. He was one person who could really get Kagome talking, which considering her condition, was quite amazing. He still hadn't been forthcoming about his plans for their upcoming _date_ and after much prompting from her, opted to not talk about it at all. It almost annoyed Kagome, but not quite since she was still pretty nervous about it.

Sango, Rin and Ayame agreed to give Kagome a make over early on Christmas Eve. The girls would all get ready at Kagome's place and their partners would be there to pick them up. Kagome was debating on what she should wear on Christmas Eve for her date. She had a lot of nice clothes that she bought in New York City, but it was difficult to chose something worthy of wearing on a date. It would probably be pretty cold so she couldn't wear anything that exposed her back or shoulders, unless they were going out to dinner. In that case, she could face the cold for a short time while walking to and from the car. She could wear her peacoat over her outfit and take it off at the right moment to stun him. Small as she was, she had a shape to her.

"Kagome?" She heard a familiar voice call from the left. She turned to see Hojo smiling warmly at her.

"Good morning," she gave him a small smile.

"I wanted to ask you something, if you have a moment." He raised a brow.

"Yeah, what is it?"'

"Well it's just that Christmas Eve is coming up," he said nervously and Kagome's face fell. "–and I wanted to know if you were maybe doing anything with your family?"

"I'm not doing anything with my family," she clarified quietly.

"Oh. Well are you free? I'd love to take you to the Japanese Disney resort." His blue eyes lit up and Kagome grimaced.

"Well..." She felt a twinge of guilt for having to shoot him down, but she felt a familiar set of eyes on her. She glanced toward the front of the room and sure enough, Kikyo was staring directly at her with a dark expression. Kagome internally grinned, an evil thought popping into her head.

"I'm sorry, Hojo," she said loud enough for Kikyo to hear, "But I already have plans for Christmas Eve with Inuyasha."

"Oh... I didn't know you were seeing someone." His face fell as his ears turned red.

"Yeah..." she said, another idea popping into her head. "Actually, Rin is having a New Year party and she said I'm allowed to invite friends over. Would you like to come?"

Hojo rubbed his chin. He looked disappointed and Kagome did feel bad, but she'd already made plans. That wasn't her fault. And even if she didn't already have plans, she wouldn't go out with Hojo on a romantic holiday. She didn't like him that way and wouldn't want to give him the wrong idea.

"I'll think about it," he finally said, quite melancholy and Kagome sighed with relief as the bell rang. She stood and left the room to head for her first class, but noticed Kikyo standing by the door, glaring at her with a hostile expression.

* * *

"You're good at this, Kagome." Sango grinned as she panted for breath. They were in their gym class doing cardio exercises. Today was jump rope, and the two gym teachers swung the rope as the students took turns jumping in and out of the rotation in single file, or in groups.

"I did a lot of training with jumping and reflexes in my self defense classes," Kagome said breathlessly as they moved up in line to jump through the rope again. Occasionally, one of the teachers would yell 'stop' and any students caught in the rope had to continue jumping until they were instructed to jump out and go to the back of the line, or they didn't jump in time with the rope and faltered.

Kagome found that over the course of the last few months in her gym class, she was becoming a bit leaner and fitter, with more stamina than she had in the beginning of the year. She could run faster and for longer periods of time, she generally had more energy, and her physique was a bit more sculpted than before. Not that she was ever out of shape, but the muscles in here stomach and legs were becoming more defined without bulking up as she maintained her feminine curves.

Her ponytail swung side to side as she and Sango jumped into the path of the rope and Mr. Rasoku suddenly yelled 'stop.' Her heart pounded as all of her classmates watched them jump in time with the rope until he told them to go and she jumped out of the other side of the rope, breaking into a light jog as she headed for the water fountain while Sango got back in line. As much as Kagome had improved, she was still no match for Sango by any means.

She downed a cool glass of water and tossed her cup away before making her way back to the line, spotting Inuyasha jumping the rope with two other girls and Kouga. She found her way back in line when a boy from her class, Bankotsu spoke. He was standing in front of her.

"How's it going, Kagome?" he asked her, giving her a friendly smile.

"Alright. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks. Hey, can I ask you something?"

Kagome raised a brow. "What's up?" she said casually.

"Are you doing anything for Christmas Eve?"

Her eyes widened as Inuyasha and Kouga came up behind her. Her cheeks heated as Inuyasha raised a curious brow at her. "Well... Yes. I already have plans."

Bankotsu didn't bother to hide the shock on his face. "Really?" he exclaimed. "No offense. It's not that I wasn't _expecting_ you to have plans because you're not pretty or anything, because you _are_ pretty. _Very_ pretty." He smiled. "I just didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Kagome could've died. "I don't have a boyfriend," she whispered and Bankotsu cocked his head to the side. She was hyper aware of Inuyasha standing right behind her but she couldn't bring herself to turn around and face him.

"Just hanging out with someone? Maybe I can take you out another time then?" he grinned and Kagome stared blankly at him. "You okay?" he asked when she didn't respond.

"I don't think..." she started, trying to find the courage to use words. "That's not a good idea." She finally managed.

"Why not?" he demanded as if rejection was a genuine shock to him. Damn, he sure had confidence. She'd give him that much.

Kagome felt like her body temperature was at a million degrees, partially because Inuyasha's eyes were burning into the back of her head. She didn't have to see his face to know how he was gazing at her. She could feel his stare piercing into her, and she felt naked at the way he was looking at her. It made her feel tingly and strange.

"I'm, uh... seeing someone else." she said and tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry. She considered turning around to get another cup of water but didn't wanna see what was waiting for her in those intense amber eyes of Inuyasha's.

"Ah," Bankotsu's face fell. "That's too bad. Oh well, he's a lucky guy, whoever he is."

"Yeah..." Kagome hugged herself nervously, resisting the urge to turn around. Jeez, Bankotsu was the third person to ask her out for Christmas Eve. She had no idea she had so many admirers.

She knew Inuyasha was still looking at her, and she knew that he knew that she knew he was looking at her. She bit her lip and tried to ignore the stare she could feel burning a hole in her crown until it was her turn to jump again. Why was she so embarrassed? Was it because Bankotsu was the third person to ask her out? Or was she embarrassed that Inuyasha witnessed their awkward conversation? He already knew that she liked him, so what was there to hide?

Just as she neared the front of the line again, the teachers suddenly pulled out another rope, swinging them in a double dutch fashion and Kagome's heart pounded as Bankotsu tried to jump in and was immediately smacked in the face by one of the ropes. He walked through and back around to the back of the line while Mr. Kaze and Mr. Rasoku started up the rhythm again.

Kagome instinctively leaned back and rocked her body slightly in time with one of the ropes. She'd never jumped two ropes before, but she came up with a strategy that if she only focused on one rope and jumped over it like normal, her instinctive half-hop between jumps would get her over both ropes.

She finally jumped in, and was surprised that Inuyasha jumped in with her and they both made it over the first rope. She flinched a bit, expecting the second rope to trip her, but she kept her rhythm steadily while her class cheered them on before they jumped out. Inuyasha tripped a bit upon exit, but immediately caught and righted himself.

"This is not a sport meant for tall people," he grumbled playfully and Kagome smiled, her earlier dread forgotten at the relaxed smile on his face.

"I don't think they take gigantism into account when designing toys meant for children." she snorted and Inuyasha pretended to be outraged as Kagome ran to the back of the line, laughing hysterically. Inuyasha easily caught up with her, grabbing her around the waist from behind and swinging her off her feet and into a circle.

"You're being so mean to me today, Short Stuff." He grinned as he set her back down. Kagome turned around to face him as his arms remained around her waist.

"You're right. I'm sorry." She smiled softly and placed one of her hands on his cheek. His eyes softened.

"You are forgiven." he cleared his throat as he released her and she stood back a bit. "What are you doing tonight? More party planning?"

Kagome shrugged. "Probably."

"You don't sound too excited."

"I've never hosted a party before, but Mama is going all out for it."

"Let's just hope Kouga can be respectful and clean up after himself." He grinned and Kagome's heart stopped. Jeez, Kouga was going to be in her house and in the vicinity of her grandfather. She really hoped they wouldn't get into it. Kagome had become more tolerant of Kouga since it was just the norm for him to be the way he was. Also, it was pretty entertaining.

"Hopefully Jiji doesn't try to exorcise him with a sacred sutra or something," she said quietly, blushing and Inuyasha laughed loudly. "What about you? Any plans tonight?"

"Nah, I'm working till 9." His face softened. "I'll text you when I get off."

"Okay." She gave him a smile which he warmly returned. After a few more rounds of double dutch–which most of the class was terrible at–the students were released to go change before the bell rang.

"I'll meet you by the locker, okay?" Inuyasha placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder. "I have to pick up something from one of my teachers. I'll only be a few minutes."

Kagome nodded. "Okay, see you soon."

As Inuyasha headed into the locker room, he noticed Bankotsu staring at him and Inuyasha raised a brow, meeting his gaze. He'd witnessed Kagome's adorably awkward encounter with him, watching her blush as she admitted she like someone else. Clearly, she was talking about Inuyasha. They hadn't openly discussed their feelings for each other since the night she told him she had selective mutism, mainly because it was already pretty obvious to them.

Bankotsu was still watching him as they stepped into the locker room and Inuyasha continued to stare back at him, growing irritated.

"What?" he demanded impatiently, raising his eyebrows.

Bankotsu grinned. "You're a lucky guy."

* * *

Karori sat in the kitchen with her two kids later in the day. Dinner was on the stove and in the oven, thanks to the assistance of Kagome, while the three sat to discuss plans for their upcoming holiday party. Karori was set on _Americanizing_ the party with food, decoration and even music. Souta was a bit uncertain about some of their ideas, since he and all the guests weren't familiar with American customs and didn't speak English like his mother and sister did. Kagome's grandfather wanted nothing to do with the festivities since he believed it was overrated.

"So we have to finalize our menu for the party," Karori was saying. "So far we have turkey, ham with cherries and pineapple, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs and kielbasi. Any other _exotic_ foods we should add?"

"Does it have to be _only_ western holiday food?" Souta pouted.

"We can have regular food, I suppose." Karori scribbled onto her notepad of ideas. Kagome noted with interest that after having Rin around so much, her mother certainly adopted some of her characteristics.

"I think Hitomi said she wanted to bring kimchi." Souta said and Kagome's brows shot up.

"Hitomi?"

"She's a friend." Souta said, blushing a bit.

"A very special friend, I bet." Kagome grinned.

"Oh stop. I'm assuming you invited Inuyasha?" he gloated and Kagome smacked his arm.

"I'm inviting a lot of my friends. _You_ barely have and friends." She rolled her eyes and Souta pinched her harshly. "Ow! Jerk!"

"Souta, enough." Karori's voice was firm.

"She hit me first!"

"You provoked me..." Kagome mumbled.

"Can we get back on topic please?" Karori implored as the two siblings glared at each other.

Souta pushed himself away from the table and stood up, hovering over his sister and mother. "I don't have any say in all this western style party so there's no point in me being here."

"Souta, we're negotiating," Karori tried to reason. "I'm willing to listen to anything you want to suggest."

"No, mom, really. This party is more for you than anything, so it should be how _you_ want it. I'm here if you need help with the cooking and whatnot but I'm not up to par with the culture like you guys are." He paused and grinned suddenly. "With that, I bid you good luck with the plans." He saluted and walked out of the kitchen.

Kagome turned to Karori. "You do realize he's just too lazy to give any input, right?"

Karori grinned. "Oh well, not like we can't plan a party ourselves. I'm really impressed with your willingness to even go on with this, if I'm being honest. I'm so proud of you."

Kagome smiled warmly and shrugged. It was mostly because of Inuyasha that she was so much more comfortable with being around her friends and other people. Karori figured that out herself, since the two had become very close within only a couple days of knowing each other.

"Anyway, I want to make my special dumplings," Kagome smiled. "No one has ever complained about my dumplings! I made them for my therapist in America once and she paid me to make a bunch of them for her daughter's birthday."

"Oh, right! Speaking of your therapist, don't forget to her send a thank you. She sent you a little something for Christmas." Karori smirked knowingly and Kagome's eyes widened.

"She got me something?"

Her mother grinned wider. "She did." She slipped off the bar stool and left the room for a moment and came back with a box. "Open it." She encouraged gently and Kagome grinned like a small child as she tore at the tape on the box and ripped it open, tossing out all the little Styrofoam balls until she pulled out a white plastic bag. Kagome glanced at her mother and her jaw dropped.

"It is really...? This is the one I wanted?" she stammered and her mother shook her head and pointed at the plastic wrapping. Kagome carefully unpacked the plastic to reveal a stunning kimono dress. It was silky and form fitting, with one full sleeve on the left side and was almost backless, with a clear spaghetti strap on the other side. Kagome unfolded it and held it up to her petite frame. It fell to just above her knees, and was black with a cherry blossom branch print on the one sleeve.

"You can wear that to the Christmas party if you want, or save it for another occasion." Karori said and Kagome blushed.

"Like Christmas Eve," she muttered nervously as her grandfather and Souta walked into the kitchen. Souta and Karori stared at her in shock.

"You have plans on Christmas Eve?" Souta asked incredulously as Kagome's grandpa glared daggers at her.

" _Mama_..." Kagome said in English so her brother and grandfather wouldn't understand. " _I was invited out for Christmas Eve by 'you know who.'_ " Karori's eye widened and she smiled.

"Oh! Well that's wonderful, Kagome!"

"What is?" The old man asked. "You think just cause I'm old that I'm too stupid to know you're talking about me in that damn English?"

"Kagome wasn't talking about you, dad."

"Well what did she say?" he demanded.

"She can't wait to wear her new dress that her therapist from America sent her." Karori distractedly turned around to check on the food on the stove while the old man stared at Kagome for quite some time before he left the room. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. Her grandfather had to understand that she was bound to start dating now that she was older. Why did he have to be so old-fashioned?

After their discussion, the family sat through a tense and awkward dinner–mostly because Kagome's grandfather kept staring at Kagome and her mother and badgering them with questions about the party and the invitation of opposite sex friends showing up. Karori was completely at ease with the friends of her children and trusted her children enough to know they wouldn't drag anyone into their home who they felt wasn't polite company.

Kagome made a point of mentioning that Souta invited a girl, but the old man shot her down, claiming that Souta wasn't capable of becoming pregnant or being shamed for being sexually active at such a young age. If there was one thing Kagome hated, it was double standards. She angrily shoved her plate away and stomped up the stairs, ignoring her grandfather's protest and slamming her door shut.

* * *

Kagome's eyes shot open as she was jolted from a bad dream or a nightmare. She wasn't sure if she'd had a disturbing night terror or not, but her heart was hammering in her chest as she rolled over in bed to face her window. Her room was still dark, but the sun was just beginning to rise, illuminating her room just enough to see the outlines of her furniture. Glancing at her clock, it was 6:11 in the morning. She still had a long day ahead of her, so she decided to go pee and try to doze back off. Her cat yawned at the foot of the bed as she got back into bed and she rolled over to face the wall this time, her thoughts filling her head.

Today was the day she was going to go on her first date. She had arranged for Sango, Ayame and Rin to come over so all the girls could get ready and doll each other up. Also, Kagome was in great need of the encouragement. She'd thought about working up to telling Ayame and Rin about her selective mutism some day, since they had definitely earned their place as very close friends of hers and she trusted them implicitly. Plus, having Sango there would probably make it easier to explain, since Sango had been there for her even through all the years Kagome lived in America.

All three girls were extremely supportive of Kagome's anxiety, and were good for pep talk when it came to trivial teenage things like boys. They strongly encouraged Kagome to get involved with Inuyasha, stating that he was always lonely when it came to romance, and was now completely smitten with someone for once. Ayame had stated that it would be a good start to give Kagome a makeover and build up her confidence. Interestingly enough, that was the very purpose of all the years of therapy she'd been through, so she was actually very excited to see what they would do to her during the makeover.

Kagome made a mental note to "interview" Inuyasha during their date. It was customary for him to ask her questions to get her talking. She knew he did it not only because he wanted to get to know her, but he wanted her to speak freely with him. She had no problem with that, since most of his questions weren't too personal, unless he was inquiring about her past in America, but she trusted him with the information. Now she wanted to get to know him as well and get _him_ talking. It wasn't like she felt like he was hiding anything from her. After all, she'd learned a lot about him during their playful arguments and their deep discussions, but she compiled a mental list of questions to ask him for fun and was looking forward to his answers.

As much as she tried to fall back asleep, her thoughts and her heart were racing too much. She turned her head to look at the clock again. It was just dawning into 7am.

' _Might as well just get up,'_ she mused as she sat up and slipped on a robe. She walked up to her window and stared into the horizon. The sun was now rising, lighting up the city and warming her face. She felt a surge of energy that wasn't familiar, so she decided to go downstairs and warm up her breakfast and watch TV for a while.

It was about 8 o' clock when she finished cooking and she _just_ sat in the big fluffy recliner when she felt her phone vibrate in her robe pocket. It was Rin.

 _Ayame wants to come over as soon as possible so I can get this dye in her hair._

Kagome texted back: _I'm up. You can come over now if you want._

Placing her phone down, Kagome smiled to herself while picturing Rin's reaction when she would see how scantily clad she was right now. Rin texted back that she and Ayame would be dropped off within the hour and she decided to shower in the mean time, washing her hair and throwing it up in a towel bun. She pulled on a pair of soft gray leggings and a fitted black sweatshirt before she trotted back downstairs. Just as she finished cleaning her dishes, she heard a knock on the door and went to answer it.

Rin, Ayame and Inuyasha stood on the threshold and Kagome's eyes widened. She wasn't expecting Inuyasha to show up and her face heated in embarrassment as he was seeing her fresh out the shower with a towel bun.

"Uh... hi." she said quietly and Rin grinned.

"Morning, Short Stuff," she teased and Kagome grimaced. Short Stuff was Inuyasha's nickname for her, and she deduced that Rin purposely requested him to drop them off.

"Come on in," Kagome stepped to the side and let the trio inside and Inuyasha grinned as he nudged her towel on her head.

"Nice getup. You wearing this tonight?" he teased and Kagome could've died of embarrassment.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Rin begged me to drop her off since Sesshomaru refuses to let her drive his car without him. He's working now."

"Oh."

"You know, it'd come in handy if you had your own bathroom," Ayame complained as she sat in one of the kitchen chairs and Rin started brushing her hair. She had a large bag with her that Kagome assumed was full of make up and hair supplies.

"We can go up to my room," Kagome suggested. "At least Jiji won't bother us there."

"Sure, I just wanna get Ayame situated first with this dye, then I'm gonna start you next," Rin glared at Kagome. "It'd be a big help if your hair was completely dry."

Kagome rolled her eyes and slowly pulled off her towel bun and Inuyasha watched in fascination as her long her fell softly around her shoulders down to her bum. She bent over and started roughly towel drying her hair, shaking it out. Somehow, seeing her casually dressed in _around the house_ clothes with wet hair provoked him.

"Sango should be over soon. I texted her." Inuyasha said distractedly, his eyes still on Kagome. "I'm gonna head out and let you girls get ready."

"Yeah yeah," Rin said dismissively.

"And you better do something with that," he pointed with his chin to Kagome's messy, soggy hair and she pouted. He grinned. "I'm only teasing. You look really cute. I'll see you later, Short Stuff."

"Sure," Kagome grumbled and Inuyasha's grin widened. He gave her a brief hug and left.

"God, you two need to bang already," Ayame groaned and Rin giggled.

"Kagome, I just want you to know that I love you like a sister and the way things are going with Inuyasha, I think you may actually _be_ my sister some day." She grinned.

"What do you mean?" Kagome raised a brow.

"Well, Sesh and I are obviously in a very serious relationship since we're going to be living together and have already gotten approval from both of our families to be married. If you marry Inuyasha, we'll be sisters!"

"Jeez, Rin. We're only going on a date. We're not consummating marriage."

"I know, but I can tell you two are crazy for each other. You're constantly eye fucking him and he constantly talks about you."

Kagome's mouth fell open. "I constantly _what?"_

"Kagome, you eye fuck him all the time and you don't even realize it." Ayame joined in. "At lunch you're always looking at him all dreamily and I've caught you staring at his shoulders and his arms!"

"He's built well! There's nothing wrong with that!" Kagome whined.

" _Giiirl_ ," Ayame pursed her lips. "You want it."

"I want what?"

"You want his big, muscular body." Rin giggled again as Kagome blanched. Damn, was it that obvious?

Yes, yes it was.

After another twenty minutes or so, Sango showed up and the girls all went up to Kagome's room to start working on each others hair, make up and nails. After Kagome dried her hair, Rin had placed curlers evenly around her head and started working on Ayame's hair, touching up her black roots with a deep red and highlighting her hair with orange-auburn streaks. It had a very autumn feel to it. She then blew it out and buffed it up so it lay thick and straight past her shoulders. Karori assisted the girls, twisting Rin's hair into a neat chignon bun and braiding Sango's hair over hair shoulder and curling her bangs with an iron.

They ate a delicately prepared lunch made by Karori and rested for a while after doing their nails. Kagome wanted to keep her curlers in until Inuyasha and the others showed up.

"And you better take them out, Rin. He already saw me with a God forsaken towel on my head." She pouted cutely and Rin laughed.

"Hey, he said you looked really cute!" Ayame protested.

"Oh please. She looked like an alien." Rin teased. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"So do you know what you're doing tonight?" Ayame asked.

"No idea. He still hasn't told me." Kagome shrugged and Rin scoffed as Kagome turned to glare at her.

"I'm saying nothing." She smiled too sweetly. "Although, I hope you're not afraid of heights."

Kagome's interest was piqued. "No, why? Are we going sky diving or something?"

"I dunno." Rin bit her lip to hide her smile and Kagome launched at her.

"YOU KNOW WHAT–" Sango grabbed Kagome around the waist to restrain her and the girls laughed at her.

"I'm sorry, Kagome but secrets aren't meant to be broken." Rin smiled. "Inuyasha is like a brother to me and I have to stick to my word. I don't keep secrets, but I _do_ keep other people's secrets."

"That makes no sense..." Sango gave her a dirty look.

"Yes it does. Kagome knows a lot about me. I have secrets that I've revealed to you ladies, but I don't open my mouth about things that other people tell me. It's not my place to say." He smile turned wicked. "I just like to tease you with small bits of information to drive you insane."

"Gee, thanks." Kagome said sarcastically. "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you guys."

"What?" Ayame asked. "You and Inuyasha already did it?"

"No!" Kagome whined. "Jeez, I'm trying to be serious and nonsexual for a second."

"Fine, sorry." Ayame bit her lip. "Please continue."

Kagome's face heated. "Well, Sango already knows, but I wanted to share with you two." She glanced at Sango. "You guys are very good friends of mine. I consider you to be sisters, actually, so I want you to know more about me."

"Why do I suddenly feel like crying?" Rin's voice broke. "Are you coming out?"

"No," Kagome smiled sadly. "At least... not in the way you're thinking."

"Dammit, woman! Come out with it!" Sango grinned in encouragement.

Kagome swallowed. "I used to suffer from social anxiety when I was a little girl."

Rin furrowed her brows. "But we already knew that."

"No, this is a bit more intense, and I haven't told you everything. I wasn't even able to talk when I was a kid. At least not to anyone but mine and Sango's families." She glanced at Sango again and Sango smiled.

"It's a condition called selective mutism." Sango explained. "She was a mute, with the exception of very few people."

"Oh..." Rin mused as her eyebrows shot up. "Well that certainly explains a lot."

"Yes," Sango agreed.

"But you're so open now." Ayame interjected. "I mean, it's obvious that you're really shy and all, but you talk to a lot of people now."

"I've gone through a lot of therapy." Kagome said. "That's why I lived in America. I was being treated there."

"Damn, it took that long?" Rin's eyes widened. Kagome nodded.

"I couldn't participate in school. It was too hard to talk to strangers. Do you remember the Siren incident?"

"Yes..." Rin and Ayame said at the same time.

"Well, that was what happened. I couldn't talk because I was in a new environment. I became mute. It's very uncommon for that to happen to me now that I'm older."

"No wonder you were quieter than usual that night." Rin said, seemingly to herself. "So it _is_ easier for you now, isn't it?"

"Yes, much easier." Kagome smiled. "Thanks to you guys."

"Aww," Ayame had tears in her eyes. "That's awesome, Kagome. You're such a strong girl! I can't imagine going through that."

Kagome grinned. She felt relieved to get that off her chest. She guessed that Rin would tell Sesshomaru, and Ayame would tell Kouga, since they were the only two who didn't know. Kagome didn't think she had it in her to tell them herself, since Kouga made her downright uncomfortable and she wasn't sure if she could even _have_ a normal, nonsexual conversation with him. Sesshomaru was just extremely intimidating.

"So why bring this up now?" Ayame asked and the other girls raised a brow at her.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.

"Well, I get that you wanted to tell us because we're all really close, by why bring it up all of a sudden now–when we're all just getting ready for tonight. Was it of some significance because you're going on your first date tonight?"

Rin and Sango's eyebrows shot up and they turned to Kagome.

"Well... it's just that you guys are always teasing me about... you know... _doing_ Inuyasha... and I just wanted it to be clear that any and all kinds of intimacy are foreign to me... I can't see myself being sexual with him... At least not any time soon."

"Yeah, I won't argue with you there." Rin said. "Lucky for you, he's not that kind of guy at all. You know, that's why Kikyo left him for Kouga." At Kagome's questioning look, she continued. "Inuyasha only went out with her because she liked him. They were good friends and he didn't want to hurt her feelings. But she was in a hurry to get to third base. It was awkward for him."

"It was awkward for all of us!" Sango said incredulously.

"Yeah, she'd make comments in front of all of us," Ayame started. "She'd joke about giving him blow jobs and saying things like 'we'll see about that tonight.' At one point he said that my mom's yakisoba was the best thing he ever tasted and she responded with 'wait till you taste this pussy' right in front of everyone. Inuyasha was pretty embarrassed. He'd just looked at her like 'did this bitch really just say that?'"

Kagome gaped at her friends, shocked. "Talk about no filter..."

"Yeah, you thought Kouga was bad?" Sango grinned. "Don't forget Kouga was the one she went for because he was also very vulgar, but even he was no match for her potty mouth."

"Back to the original topic..." Rin rolled her eyes. "You know we're only teasing you, Kagome. We don't expect you to bang Inuyasha any time soon. Take it at your pace. He'll always be around. He really likes you."

"Wow, Rin. Sentimentality from you?" Sango was sarcastic. "What's the occasion?"

"Well, it's Christmas Eve and it's going on 3 o' clock so we should probably get dressed and get our make up on before the boys get here..."

"Oh shoot, yeah!" Ayame's eyes widened.

The girls hustled to get their assorted outfits and _masks_ on, as Kagome put. Rin and Ayame were doing full facial contouring with their make up, which didn't make much sense to Kagome since the girls both had very nice skin. Kagome did her makeup very light and casual, with winged eyeliner and some mascara. Sango insisted that she also wear flavored lip gloss, just in case.

"In case _what?"_ Kagome demanded. Sango rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Kagome. You're gorgeous. You think Inuyasha wouldn't wanna kiss you?"

Sango kept her look pretty casual, since she and Miroku were going to a concert. She chose not to doll up like the others were but opted for a nice pink blouse, a pair of fitted jeans and knee length boots. She completed her outfit with a small pair of hoop earrings and a studded choker.

Ayame wore a stunning floor length silk gown. It was a deep red, like her hair, and there was a long slit up her thigh to give her leg room. The neckline plunged halfway to her waist, revealing more than enough skin, and she wore a long, thin chain that draped down into her cleavage. Wherever she and Kouga had reservations, it must have been pretty damn fancy. Rin was also dressed very formally, wearing a deep navy halterneck gown with matching heels and adorned in jewelry.

"You're going to a concert in that dress?" Sango asked incredulously.

"Not an outdoor concert. It's a live show at the restaurant we're going to." Rin explained as she removed Kagome's hair curlers. She lightly fluffed Kagome's hair with her hands, buffing out the kinked curls. The hair, which was normally down to her butt, now fell in bouncy curls to the small of her back.

Rin carefully helped Kagome into her kimono dress so she wouldn't ruin her hair and make up. Ayame had loaned Kagome a strapless bra so she could expose the upper right half of her flawless back. The spaghetti strap on her right side was tucked inside the kimono. The dress revealed an unexpected amount of cleavage, but was still demure. Rin played around with Kagome's accessories, adorning her with diamond earrings, a few rings and a choker chain.

"We look so hot!" Ayame squealed excitedly as she twirled in Kagome's body mirror, grinning like a fool.

"Jeez, you guys are making me wish I was doing something more formal." Sango grinned.

"We have to take lots and lots of pictures!"

"Ayame, calm down." Kagome laughed.

"The boys should be here any minute," Rin said. "We should head downstairs."

"They need to hurry up. I'm starving." Ayame complained as she pulled on her satin wrap to ward off the chill of the night. The girls headed downstairs and Souta's eyes widened as he caught site of them.

"Wow." He choked out and Rin giggled.

"You all look so beautiful!" Karori had tears in her eyes. "Get together! I want pictures! Where'd I put my camera?"

The girls giggled as they all huddled together and Karori snapped a couple pictures from her camera and the girls' phones. "I want individual pictures by the tree. Go stand by the tree!"

"Jeez, mom." Souta chuckled as his mother gushed over the girls' outfits and continued taking pictures. They all huddled in a circle to look through the pictures when there was a knock on the door. Souta got up to answer the door while all the girls squealed and giggled over who was making what face in whatever picture.

 _'Girls...'_ he thought to himself as he opened the door. Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Miroku and Kouga were ushered in while the girls were still in the living room squealing. Souta stood on the threshold of the living room and cleared his throat loudly until he had the girls' attention.

"Uh, you have company?" he said sarcastically.

"Whoops," Ayame giggled.

"In here!" Karori called and the boys slowly filtered into the room.

Miroku, like Sango, was dressed casually, but appropriately for the cold weather while Inuyasha, Sesshomaru and Kouga were wearing suits. Their expressions all changed as they admired their partners. Inuyasha's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, seeing Kagome in a beautiful fitted kimono dress. He'd been anxious to see her all day, trying to imagine what kind of outfit the girls would put together for her, but he never imagined she'd wear anything like this dress. It showed a lot of skin around her shoulders and her back, which he figured would be out of her comfort zone, but she looked absolutely breathtaking. Her curly hair bounced around her shoulders as she turned her head to look at him, her expression mirroring his as she took in his black suit. He wasn't wearing a tie and his hair was loose and neat past his backside.

"I want pictures of everyone with their date!" Karori gushed again and Kagome blushed in embarrassment as everyone linked up with their respective partner and took turns getting their picture taken in front of the tree. As Inuyasha wrapped his arm around Kagome's waist for the group picture, he turned to whisper in her ear: "You look so beautiful."

Kagome blushed hotly and cracked a goofy grin in time for Karori to take their picture. Afterwards, Rin promptly introduced Kouga and Sesshomaru before everyone started to filter out.

"You two have fun and be safe," Karori said to Kagome and Inuyasha as he helped her into her peacoat.

"I'll have her back by 10," Inuyasha smiled charmingly.

"Oh, nonsense. You two have a good time. I trust you both." She had tears in her eyes again.

"Oh, Mama," Kagome grinned as she hugged her mother. "Don't cry. It's not like I'm getting married and moving away."

"I know, but you've come such a long way from your early years. I never thought this day would come, but I always hoped." Karori's voice broke. Thankfully, Inuyasha stepped outside to give them privacy. Kagome's eyes softened.

"Thank you, Mama. I love you. I'll be back soon." She pecked Karori's cheek and turned in the doorway to head outside.

"I love you too! Be safe!" she called out to the group as they all headed down the shine steps. Karori closed the door and shook her head, trying to halt her tears. ' _No, you're not getting married yet, Kagome,'_ she thought to herself. _'But the way you're moving along now, I can see it happening.'_

* * *

 **I've been getting requests to put a lemon in this story, though I hadn't planned for one, in all honesty. This started out as a T rated story, and I only changed the rating because of my love of foul language.**

 **What do you guys think?**

 **Please review! :3**


	15. Interviews

The group headed across the massive property of the Higurashi shrine and descended the long staircase. Inuyasha had offered Kagome his elbow on the stairs to make sure she wouldn't fall. She was wearing a stylish pair of winter booties to keep her warm and complement her lovely dress. The heels made her a couple inches taller, but she was still tiny next to her power house of a date. Her long peacoat covered her body down to her knees, shielding her from the cold.

She was surprised when he lightly tugged her in the other direction, away from his red car and toward a silver car. She raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he smiled as he pressed the alarm to unlock it.

"I borrowed a car for us this evening. Don't forget... that's Sesshomaru's car. This is my mother's." He nodded toward Sesshomaru, Rin, Miroku and Sango getting into the red car. Kouga and Ayame were behind Inuyasha and Kagome.

"Are we all going out together?" Kagome asked as she got in the passenger seat.

"I'm just dropping them off. Sesshomaru is gonna drop off Miroku and Sango at their concert and they're gonna take a train to their hotel," Inuyasha explained as he started up the engine. Ayame and Kouga slipped into the back seat, giggling and whispering to each other. Kagome blushed, remembering the last time Kouga and Ayame had a sexual tryst in the vicinity of everyone. They really were unashamed of their intense sexual attraction to each other.

"Please wait until you get to your _h_ _otel_ before you start stimulating each others genitals." Inuyasha snapped. "And put your seat belts on. I don't want any shit with my mother's car if I get pulled over."

"Calm down, ass." Kouga bellowed from the back seat, making Kagome jump. "As if you and Pip Squeak aren't gonna fuck in this car tonight. You're fucking idiots if you don't. Actually, you're fucking idiots either way. Get it?"

"Kouga!" A slap was heard from the back seat as Kouga whined. "Stop being such an ass! It's a holiday!" Ayame was adamant and Kouga let out a stubborn _hmph_.

"So what are you guys doing tonight?" Kagome asked in hope of lightening the mood.

"We're going to a teppanyaki-ya and staying in the hotel there." Kouga said gruffly.

"Sounds expensive."

"Oh, _trust_ me," he sounded exasperated. "I had to save up for a fucking _while_ to make these reservations."

"I bet."

"His mother is paying for it," Inuyasha grinned.

"She's _helping_ me pay!" Kouga protested.

"What about you two?" Ayame asked excitedly and Kagome's gaze snapped to Inuyasha, drinking in his attire, loving the way his suit accentuated his masculinity. His eyes slid over to glance at her and he smirked.

"It's a surprise."

"Dang it," Kagome muttered cutely and Inuyasha chuckled.

"It was worth a shot, Kagome." Ayame giggled from the back seat.

"This is why I can only trust Rin with these things." Inuyasha was grinning wickedly now. "We have enough dirt on each other that we really can't tell on each other without being blackmailed."

"Some friendship you guys have..." Kouga muttered and Inuyasha chuckled again.

"She's more like a very annoying and bossy little sister."

"I can attest to that," Kagome giggled. "So what dirt does she have on you?"

"I've told you most of my secrets, haven't I?" He sounded playfully insulted.

"I don't know... I feel like I should know more about you." She smiled at him. Though he couldn't look back at her while he was driving, he smiled too.

"You can get to know me all you like tonight." He said quietly, hoping that didn't sound dirty.

"Sounds like they're gonna get to know each other in bed." Kouga grinned widely.

"Shut up, wolf boy." Inuyasha snorted.

"You guys do realize we're still in the car, right?" Ayame laughed.

After some time, they pulled up in front of a massive hotel in Shinjuku City. Kouga slid out of the car and walked to Inuyasha's side to let out Ayame, then leaned up to Inuyasha's window to slip him a tip a tip and wished him a good night. That was extremely out of the norm for him and for some reason, it made Kagome nervous. Whatever Inuyasha was planning for their night, it must have been a big deal if even Kouga was being so encouraging. Or maybe even someone like Kouga was capable of being charitable on the holidays.

"Alright, Short Stuff." He turned to face her briefly as he pulled out of the massive hotel lot. Kagome gulped. "I made a promise that you would have fun tonight. For starters, are you hungry?"

"Yes, actually." She gave him a small smile. She was famished. She'd only eaten an omelet and a bowl of soup earlier.

"That's good. Our stop isn't far from here." He said and Kagome pouted.

"Are you going to tell me what we'll be doing?"

"You'll find out soon enough." He grinned widely. "I'm gonna feed you, then we'll enjoy a night out on the town."

"You're not giving much away, are you?"

"Funny you should say that." He bit his lip. He was enjoying himself so much and part of Kagome wanted to laugh, despite being annoyed with his teasing. It was difficult to be mad at him when he was being so playful and adorable. Kagome wanted to squeeze him when he was like this.

She tried to hide her smile as she crossed her arms and looked out the window. It was a beautiful, clear night, apart from being cold. Inuyasha pulled up to a massive sky scraper and Kagome craned her head to view the whole thing, her jaw dropping in awe. After leaving the car with the valet, he escorted her up the walkway to the lobby. It was a rather tall building, one of the tallest she'd ever seen. For someone who lived most of her live in New York City, that was saying something.

Once through the first set of glass doors, Inuyasha led her into an impressive lobby with a huge grand staircase. She was glad she'd dressed up the way she did, as all the patrons were adorned in dressy clothes and suits. She twiddled her thumbs impatiently as they waited for the elevator. Once inside, he pushed the button for the 40th floor.

Kagome leaned her head against the wall of the elevator as she thought back to her days of treatment. Her specialist's office was on the 34th floor of the building and she used to press her face up against the window and stare out at the massive city of New York. Despite being hundreds of feet in the air, it was a secure feeling, being hidden away in her tower and away from everyone and everything that made her feel different. Though ironically, she was in her tower _because_ she was different. And while her tower was secure, it was also extremely lonely and suffocating.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha cocked his head to the side as he gazed at her. "You okay?"

She flushed. "Yeah, sorry."

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked as he lead her through a beautiful specious hallway up to a set of dark wooden doors.

"I like elevators," she said quietly and he raised a brow at her.

"Oh? Any particular reason?"

She shrugged. "I'm used to being in high-rise buildings. I like the views they offer."

Inuyasha smiled softly. "Hopefully you'll like this one." He looked nervous as he pushed the double doors open. Kagome's jaw dropped as she took in the scenery of the massive room. It was a restaurant with dark wooded walls, tables and a bamboo garden set up throughout the seating area. A large koi pond occupied much of the central space, decorated with tropical Asian flowers. There were plants and stained glass lanterns decorating all the tables and an enormous panoramic window facing the city.

The hostess seemed to recognize Inuyasha as she greeted him warmly and addressed him by his first name. Kagome arched a brow as they were led to a table against the window, and Kagome's breath caught in her throat seeing the city of Toyo spread out beneath her, the lights of the city twinkled, and Mount Fuji was visible way off in the distance. Inuyasha helped Kagome out of her coat, giving him a good look at her dress from earlier. Her flawless creamy white skin was visible on the right side of her back. Luckily the dress still covered her enough that it didn't void the dress code.

Their waiter came to their table to give them their menus, and as Kagome opened it, she noted that there was something familiar about this waiter, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was. She shook her head to dispel the thought and glanced at the appetizers, raising her eyebrows at the menu layout.

"It's also in English," she mused and Inuyasha smirked. "Did you purposely chose this place?"

"Well, yes, but not because it's translated into English. This is one of the best international restaurants in Japan. The chef on the Paradise floor specializes in Italian cuisine."

"Oh, that's interesting."

"And on there's a New York City-style bar and grill on the fifty-second floor," he continued.

She raised a brow. "You sure know a lot about this place."

He gave her a toothy grin and gestured toward her menu. Kagome grimaced and looked down at her appetizer menu to make her choice. It all looked really good, but the _prices..._

 _'Jeez, I feel kinda guilty that he's going out of his way to spend so much money on me.'_ She sighed and glanced up over her menu to watch him, but his eyes were on her and his hands were folded on the table. He hadn't even touched his menu. She gave him a weak smile, embarrassed and flattered to catch him watching her with a politely patient expression.

"Would you like to try something from the tasting menu?" he asked her softly.

"No, thank you." ' _I'd like to make this as cheap as possible, to be completely honest.'_

"No, really. Take your time. I'm in no hurry." He was sincere. It made her heart hammer restlessly.

Kagome bit her lip. She looked uncomfortable. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She glanced away. "This place is very expensive."

"Yes."

"It just seems unfair that you're going out of your way to spend so much money on me for only one night."

Inuyasha sighed. "Well I'm getting charged on a... special bill. Don't worry about the cost. Really. You can order anything you like."

Kagome smiled. "Thank you. You're very generous."

"Keh. It's nothing. Besides," he grinned wickedly, "I booked this place over a month ago, so you better eat up, Short Stuff. I don't want this reservation going to waste."

"Okay, okay," she giggled. "I've made my choice for an appetizer."

"What'd you decide on?"

Kagome gave him a smug smirk, a thought popping into her head. She raised her menu and glanced it over and then read from the English menu: " _Pan-seared scallops, sun-dried tomatoes,_ wasabi _, celeriac pur_ _é_ _e and hazelnuts._ " She closed her menu and peeked up at him. He was staring at her with his mouth hanging open, but he looked amused.

"Uh... in Japanese, please?" he chuckled and Kagome shook her head. "And so it begins, Short Stuff."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She bit her lip again.

"You know I learned some English in school." He grinned.

"Not enough, apparently."

"Hey," he held up his hands in front of him in defense. "It's not my fault I never got to travel across the world and learn a new language like you did. Plus, I'm sure being around tons of native English speakers was a help."

"I've learned other languages while I was there." She grinned. "I know some Spanish."

"Then the chef would love you. He's from Argentina."

She raised a brow. "How do you know so much about this place?"

He gave her a dark smirk. "I work here."

Kagome raised her brows. That must have been why there was something so familiar about their waiter. She'd seen Inuyasha in that same uniform before. For some reason, it made her smile. She watched him wave over the nearest waiter and they placed their orders for their appetizers. When the waiter left, Inuyasha turned back to Kagome, taking in her attire and curly hair. She really did look gorgeous.

"I like you with curly hair." He smiled charmingly, folding his hands on the table again.

"So you don't like me with straight hair?" Kagome pouted and Inuyasha chuckled.

"You know what I meant. Your dress is really nice, too. It complements you."

She blushed deeply. "Thank you. I just hope it doesn't show too much skin for a formal setting."

His eyes briefly fell to her bare shoulder and collar bones. "No, not at all. They wouldn't allow you in if they felt you weren't dressed appropriately. How did you guess I'd be taking you somewhere so formal?"

Kagome shrugged. She didn't know, but she guessed by how secretive he was about it and his refusal to answer her questions that he'd be doing something big for her. Luckily her therapist sent her a dress that would be suitable for almost any kind of date.

"I dunno. I just wanted to dress up nicely. Much like you." She ushered toward his suit.

"Me?" He raised his brows.

"You look so..." she narrowed her eyes, looking for the right word. "So... sharp."

"Sharp..." he repeated, pondering the word.

Kagome nodded. "Yes. I've never seen you dressed like this before."

"Woman, you see me in my school uniform every day."

"Well, yeah," she said sheepishly. "But that's not a suit and tie."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "You know, I wore a suit to Miroku's uncle's wedding. We all did."

"From what I saw, you were wearing a coconut bra." She clasped her hand over her mouth to smother her giggling and Inuyasha bit his lip to hide his smile as he shook his head. "I'm sorry," she managed between giggles. "Where did you even get a suit? I'd assume yours would have to be custom made, right?"

Inuyasha stared at her with his mouth gaping open in playful outrage before he recovered. He leaned across the table and said in a low voice: "You're so lucky we're in public."

"Oh? You gonna hoist me over your shoulder again?" she challenged.

"Not while you're in a dress, no. Anyway, this suit _is_ custom made. For my father."

She raised her brows. "Your father?"

He nodded. "He's had this suit for a long time. This is the very suit he was wearing when he proposed to my mother."

"That's so sweet." She smiled. "And he gave it to you?"

"Well, I guess you could say that. He doesn't wear it any more but he keeps it for the sake of having it. Sentimental values, ya know? But I had to have the pants hemmed. He's taller than me."

"I believe it. I've only ever seen him once, though... on Sports Day. Your whole family is pretty tall."

Inuyasha grinned. "Believe it or not, I'm the shortest male in my family. Sesh is 6'4 or 6'5, my dad is 6'6. My grandfather was also 6'5."

"And you have the nerve to pick on me?" She grimaced. "That's bullying, ya know."

"I only tease you, Short Stuff. You know I think your size only adds to how cute you are." He smirked and Kagome bit her lip as she stared into her lap, flushing in pleasure.

"Plus, you've been trained to defend yourself from bullies. I, on the other hand, used to get picked on for being big all the time."

Kagome's head snapped up to see Inuyasha sporting a serious expression. "Oh?"

"Mhm." He nodded. "I was bullied at one point in my life, believe it or not. A lot of people were afraid of me because I was always the tallest kid in class, but I was really skinny so I looked very disproportioned. I earned nicknames like String Bean and Bigfoot and Noodle Legs. But when I got older–" He gave her a wide grin. "–I started working out and put on muscle. When I got accepted into the same high school as Sesshomaru and people learned that I have an older brother who's even bigger than I am, I got less heat."

Kagome blinked at him before she suddenly giggled. Inuyasha raised a brow at her expression and she apologized. "I'm just happy that you told me this."

"Happy?" he was baffled. "Hearing that I got picked on makes you _happy?"_

"I'm happy that you understand what it's like to be treated differently." She smiled sweetly. "And I like that you opened up to me about your hard times. It's a reminder that you're as human as I am."

"Human? You think I'm not human?" He was amused.

Kagome shook her head. "No, I know that you're human, obviously. But you don't normally discuss your hardships with me. I just like that you trust me."

Inuyasha stared at her as the waiter returned with their appetizers. Adjusting her napkin on her lap, Kagome flashed him a smile before she dug in. Inuyasha shook his head before he smiled back and they enjoyed their meal.

* * *

Leaving his mother's car in a parking garage, Inuyasha escorted Kagome through the streets of Shinjuku. They were in the middle of a vast sea of shops and boutiques, restaurants, Christmas carolers, decorations and Christmas light shows. Inuyasha had his arm looped through Kagome's, keeping her locked against him so as not to get lost in the sea of other couples. Everyone was bustling, as per usual, but the excitement and lust in the air were tangible.

They'd gone through a long stretch of the city admiring the views of the decorated buildings, streets, and shops. Inuyasha sang along to himself with a Japanese Christmas choir group. One of the parks they happened across had a delightful bounty of flower-shaped lanterns and canopy lights. It was absolutely stunning, Kagome's mouth hanging open as she took in the scenery. She hadn't spent Christmas in Japan since she was a small child, and she never got to explore Shibuya or Shinjuku during the season. Inuyasha hoisted Kagome up on one of his broad shoulders at one point so she had a better view of a firework display. Her eyes were lit up like a small child's the whole time.

She'd made a promise to herself to get to know him better and opted for "interviewing" him, but he kept pestering her with questions in return, distracting her from her mission. He was only doing it to tease her, but she was so easily distracted and he loved getting her to talk to him. So as they walked about, they settled on a game of "interview tag," where they would take turns listing off random facts about themselves and asking each other questions in order to get to know each other better, or as Kagome had playfully put it, to uncover some of the dirt Rin must have had on him. She couldn't recall a time she spoke to someone so much who wasn't her family.

"Okay, I'll give you one more and then it's your turn." Kagome craned her neck to look up into Inuyasha's curious eyes.

"Alright, but hurry. I don't want you getting sick again because we're out here." He grimaced. He'd slipped on a parka to keep himself warm after they had their dinner. Kagome touched her chin with her free hand, trying to think.

"Um... I hate feet. They creep me out."

"Of course you're creeped out by feet. It's so _you_."

"Shut up," Kagome smirked, noting that she had indeed picked up quite a few of his characteristics after spending so much time with him.

"I have a giant teddy bear named Bon-Bon, I prefer to take baths than showers because they're more relaxing, I'm petrified of flooded toilets, and I've never eaten ox tail before."

"Really?" Inuyasha grinned. "I know exactly where I can take you to try some. Better yet, I can cook some for you."

"You cook?"

He nodded and grinned. "Don't act so surprised. Mother is fond of cooking. She taught Sesshomaru and I the basics of home training at a very young age."

They paused at a street corner to wait for traffic. Why anyone bothered to drive on a day like this was beyond them, seeing as there were people _everywhere_. Kagome shuddered deeply as a gust of wind blew by. Frowning in disapproval, Inuyasha released Kagome's arm to pull off his gloves.

"Here, put these on," He commanded gently. Kagome obliged, slipping his too-big gloves onto her little hands. They were warm on the inside. As they crossed the street, Inuyasha put his arm through hers again. A thought occurred to him as they neared a decorated shop that was blaring loud, upbeat Japanese Christmas music. Inuyasha grinned excitedly as he tugged Kagome a bit, forcing her to break into a light jog.

"Where are we going?" she huffed breathlessly and Inuyasha slowed to a walk and stopped as they neared the source of the music. It appeared to be a bar, but the party inside was in full swing and there were people at the tables outside smoking, drinking, eating, and having a good time. Inuyasha turned to face Kagome as he grabbed both of her hands and slowly started walking backwards while bobbing to the beat.

Kagome's eyes widened as she caught on. "Uh... what are you doing, Inuyasha?" She stared at him incredulously as he broke into a dance that was rather uncoordinated, especially since he was so tall. He looked ridiculous, but the big goofy grin on his face with infectious.

"I'm trying to warm you up," he said as he took her hands again. "Dance with me."

"But I don't–" Kagome squealed as he suddenly pulled her against him and wrapped his arm around her and held her other hand in his, guiding her into a rather awkward step. He was much too tall to dance with her as he kinda crouched down in a squat-like stance and she was still only up to his neck. She blushed deeply as a couple bystanders were watching them in amused disbelief.

Inuyasha suddenly grabbed her by the waist and dipped her low, causing her curls to bounce around her face as she felt the blood rush to her head before he stood her up right and took her hand, leading her into a spin. She laughed loudly as he released her and clapped his hands before he started doing the running man.

"Don't be a party pooper, Short Stuff." He laughed wholeheartedly, his golden eyes dancing with mirth. Kagome shook her head and bit her lip as she watched him continue to dance in circles around her, occasionally stopping to tweak her nose or pull gently on one of her curls, fascinated at how they bounced back into place.

"You're a terrible dancer," Kagome laughed and he shrugged as he continued his frolicking.

"Doesn't matter. It's the fun of doing it that counts, right?"

"I think you're the one who needs to warm up," she shook her head in mock disapproval as she put her hands on her hips.

"I can assure you I'm _very_ warm, little one." He stopped _dancing_ and looped his arm through hers again. "What about you? Are you warm?"

"I'm toasty, thank you." She smiled as they continued their stroll down the block.

"Good," he said simply as he slipped his arm free and wrapped it protectively around her shoulders. "Now, where were we?"

"It's your turn," she said shyly as she wrapped her arm around his waist. "Just a few random things."

"Jeez." He had the gal to become flustered as he peeked down at her. How he could be embarrassed now after his little _show_ was beyond her. "Fine. Before I became a waiter, I was a busboy."

"I already knew that." She pouted.

"What do you want? My life story?"

"I've got time," she smiled up at him and he unwillingly smiled back. He couldn't help it. "Don't tell me you don't like talking about yourself, because I wouldn't believe you."

"Oh?"

"The way you're always gloating about being better than Kouga, you definitely take a lot of pride in yourself."

"Keh. That's because Kouga's an ass and it's nice to shut him up."

He led her to a seating area on a small bridge with benches and tables lined up under a series of decorated pavilions. They sat on one of the benches lined up with the railing of the bridge and Inuyasha pulled Kagome close, hovering over her a bit to shield her from the wind.

"Anyway, where was I? My life story?"

Kagome nodded as she leaned against him.

"Let's see... I was born in Tokyo Medical University Hospital. I was severely underweight when I was a baby and I was put on a special formula diet. I learned to walk when I was ten months old. I've _never_ cut my hair before, and I don't plan to." He grinned at her.

"Not even a trim?"

"I trim the occasional split ends every few months, but never more than an inch."

"I can't say I'm surprised," she said distractedly as she twirled a strand of his long hair between her fingers. His hair was even longer than hers. "Go on," she gently urged.

"I was obsessed with the _Teen Titans_ when I was younger. My first pet was a tarantula, and I named him Gizmo. I tried to feed him jelly beans and carrots... He died as a result." He pouted.

"That's awful."

Inuyasha shrugged. "I didn't wanna give him live animals or bugs. I didn't have the heart. After seeing a snake eat a rabbit..." He shuddered then continued. "I love animals, but I've never really been able to have a pet because my mother has bad allergies. And I think Gizmo traumatized her."

Kagome raised a brow. "Arachnophobia?"

"Yeah. He got out of his cage and ended up in her closet." He grinned. "But now that I have my own place, maybe I can get a new pet. So long as the landlord approves."

"How are things at the apartment?" she perked up. "Are you all moved in?"

"Yep. Got the last box unpacked yesterday. Rin doesn't want anyone to see it until the New Year party, though." He squeezed her a bit tighter as the cold air circled him.

"How do you like it so far? Is it haunted?"

He laughed loudly, bouncing against her. "No, I haven't experienced anything paranormal yet. But I like it. I have to admit I really like the way Rin decorated it, too. And I have my own bathroom now. I mean it's not _in_ my room like theirs, but it's right across from me and they don't use it. Also, when Sesh and Rin aren't there I can walk around naked all I want."

"What's with men and wanting to be naked all the time?" Kagome raised a brow.

"See, _that_ ," he lightly tapped her nose, "...is a man thing. You wouldn't understand."

Kagome rolled her eyes. She slept mostly naked almost every night, so she _did_ understand. Somehow she felt that wasn't the kind of thing she should share with him. After hearing that he shied away from sexual intimacy, it just didn't seem appropriate to talk about it. Still, she couldn't help but be curious if it was because Kikyo made him uncomfortable, or if it was because he was completely against it.

Back to the present, she cocked her brow at him. "So if I ever wanted to visit you, I'd have to keep my eyes closed, right?"

He laughed again. "No, I'm modest enough to wear clothing around girls. My mom kinda raised me that way. She doesn't even like when men walk around without a shirt on in their own home."

Kagome thought back to the night they spent in the guest house. Miroku and Kouga removed their shirts because they were so hot, but Inuyasha and Sesshomaru didn't. "Not even your dad?"

"Nope. Unless it's in the bedroom, she thinks it's inappropriate."

"That sounds kinda silly." Kagome pursed her lips. Inuyasha chuckled.

"Well if you ever come to visit me, I'll make sure I take my shirt off for ya," he teased and Kagome blushed hotly as he howled. "I'm only kidding, Short Stuff. You don't have that privilege."

"I wanna ask you something," she gave him a small smile and he tilted his head in curiosity. "What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?"

He stuttered a bit. "You mean _besides_ ejaculating in a public library and having to run home with soiled pants?"

"Oh, right." Kagome giggled. "I forgot about that."

He removed his arm that was around her shoulder to fold his arms between them as he pouted. "You don't remember the secrets I tell you? Not to mention the ones that I'm not proud of? See, I could've avoided saying that again if I'd known you forgot."

"Does it bother you that I know?" she asked, genuinely intrigued and he shrugged.

"Well I'm not exactly _ecstatic_ that you know, but I trust you." He smiled as he sat back and rested his arms along the back of the bench, the picture of ease.

"The night you told us all... _that..._ um..." Kagome fiddled nervously with one of the buttons on her jacket. "I feel like there was something else that you wanted to say _before_ you said that."

"There was." He was serious now.

Kagome continued to fidget and she could feel his eyes on her. "I was wondering what... _that_ was," she barely managed to whisper.

"You wanna take a guess?" he asked, his voice low. Kagome shook her head as she continued to avoid his gaze. She couldn't talk again. She was too flustered. The heat was building in her chest, but for the first time she welcomed it. She knew what he was going to say, and her heart yearned to hear the words again.

"Kagome, look at me." He demanded softly and she jumped a bit at the sound of her name. These days he usually directly addressed her as Short Stuff, only using her actual name if he was talking to someone else about her. Otherwise, he was being serious if he used her name. She turned to look at him and he suddenly sat up on the bench so his body was against hers as he stared down his nose at her. He felt something in him shift as he wrapped his arm around her again.

He took a deep breath, being a bit nervous himself and he gave her a soft smile that reached his eyes. He took hold of one of her hands in his free hand and gave it a little squeeze.

"I like you." His voice shook a bit and he cleared his throat. "I _really_ like you. I've liked you for a very long time."

Kagome stared at him blankly, unable to verbally respond. Even though it was natural for her to shy away from such bold declarations, she wanted to hear him say it. She needed to hear him say it. They've never truly had a chance to talk about their feelings for each other, and this was the closure she needed. This man that she chanced upon was completely smitten with her, even after learning of her drawbacks. What's more, she felt the same way. She didn't care that he was much taller than most people. She didn't care that he use to be really skinny with unkempt pubes. She adored him. Her sentimental admission choked her speech. Overwhelmed by her scattered thoughts and emotions, her little hands started to shake and tears welled up in her eyes. Inuyasha felt and watched her reaction and his eyes widened as his heart pounded.

"Jesus, Kagome. You okay?" he lightly gripped her shoulders. He'd seen this happen before and he really hoped he didn't set off her anxiety every time he tried to be affectionate with her. That wouldn't go to well in the future if they were gonna have some type of relationship.

Suddenly, she smile a big, goofy smile that made him melt. Unsure if she was still able to verbally respond, she nodded.

"Damn, you scared the hell out of me!" he yelled in playful outrage and she started giggling. Before he knew it, he was laughing with her, relieved that she was okay. As they came down from their laughter, he took her hands again.

"I better get you home. It's going on nine and we still have to go get the car."

Kagome sighed and looked into her lap before glancing up at him again. She nodded and they stood off the bench. Wrapping their arms securely around each other, they made their way through town back to the parking garage.

* * *

They both sat in Izayoi's car, continuing their game of "interview tag." Kagome had starting talking again after they got situated in the car, much to Inuyasha's relief. They were parked in front of the steps to her shrine, but they still had some time before she had to be back in the house. Midnight's Absolute Reprise crooned softly from his speakers. It had become the norm for him to listen to American music after letting Kagome get a hold of his playlist.

"I can't imagine you with a lisp." Kagome giggled as she purposely _lisped_ on the word 'lisp.'

"I told you I had a bad gap in my teeth when I was younger." Inuyasha grinned. "Thankfully, I got braces when I was seven. Would've been one extra thing for people to pick on me for if I was tall and skinny was a speech problem. So I kinda know how it was for you to have issues with speech."

"Well, aside from the fact that I have perfect teeth," she flashed him a big playful smile and he poked her rib, making her jump a bit.

"I do too, you little butthead." He shook his head as he flashed his teeth in return. His fangs were long and sharp, almost like a canine's.

"Did I tell you that I also had a speech impediment?" she asked and he shook his head. "When I was learning to speak English I had a difficult time with pronunciation."

"And how did you improve?"

"I sang in English." She smile. "I would record myself singing and listen to it. I liked how I sounded."

Inuyasha leaned his head on his arms over the steering wheel. "You should sing to me some day."

"Maybe with time." She chewed her lip. "If you cook me some ox tail, I'll make you a recording."

He smirked and closed his eyes as he shook his head. "It's my turn. I'll ask you one more question for the night, then I'm taking you upstairs before you grandfather tries to give my penis an exorcism."

Kagome threw her head back in laughter and he chuckled a few times before he got serious again. "Go ahead," she gently pressed.

He breathed deeply through his nose. This question had been nagging at him for months. "How come you don't let me call you?"

Kagome's face fell and Inuyasha's did too at her expression.

"It's a bit difficult to explain," she sighed. "It's just... There are certain things that are still difficult for me. Talking on the phone is one of them."

"Ah," he said quietly.

"It's not you, Inuyasha. It really isn't." She looked at him with a sad expression. "Please don't let this come between us."

"I'm not," he sat up straight and turned his body to face her. "I know that certain things don't come easy to you like they do to most people, and I'm okay with that, Kagome." His face heated a bit. He knew that when dealing with someone who had her condition, he'd have to be understanding and supportive. For Kagome, he was willing to be both.

"I can work up to it," she said uncertainly. "I can work up to a lot of things now." She added, though she seemed to be talking to herself. She glanced back at Inuyasha and he raised a brow at her.

"Time to go upstairs," he smiled a bittersweet smile. As they got out of the car and headed up the staircase, he looped his arm through hers again. Upon reaching the small set of steps that went up to the front door, Inuyasha stood on the bottom step while Kagome stood a step above him, at neck level.

"Did you have a good time tonight, Short Stuff?" he asked softly and she nodded, looking up at him with half-lidded eyes. "I did too. Thank you."

Kagome took a deep breath as she grabbed hold of his hands. She'd given his gloves back to him earlier. "You know, I still have a lot of questions for you." She smiled and he chuckled a bit as he wrapped his fingers around hers.

"So do I. I don't think my curiosity will ever go away, to be honest. There's a lot more to you than what meets the eye, ya know. And that's saying something." He lowered his voice, inching his face closer to hers. Kagome's heart pounded as his eyes flickered to her lips. He looked back into her eyes, inching forward, making it clear what he was going to do. Kagome's breath hitched as his face dipped into hers, their noses and foreheads touching as their eyes fluttered shut.

"Kagome! You're home!"

Kagome and Inuyasha jumped apart as if they were electrocuted when the porch's harsh light flashed on and the front door jerked open. Kagome's grandfather was standing in the doorway behind her, giving Inuyasha a murderous stare.

"Y-yeah." Kagome stuttered. "Don't be mad, Jiji. I'm not past curfew, am I?"

"It's 9:54" He grumped. "Get inside, before you catch a cold."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'll be right there."

The old man simply huffed and walked out of the doorway, but didn't close the door. Kagome sighed, taking the hint. She turned back to face Inuyasha and he was grimacing with his hands in his pockets. He gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He looked disappointed. Frustrated, even.

"I guess that's my cue, eh?"

Kagome hung her head. "Yeah, I guess." Lifting her head to look into his eyes, she gave him a tight smile. "I'll see you at the party tomorrow, right?"

"Of course," his eyes and his smile softened. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Right." She shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Goodnight, Inuyasha."

His expression fell a bit as he gave her a small wave. "Night, Short Stuff. See ya tomorrow." He stuffed his hands back into his pockets as he turned and peeked at her over his shoulder before he starting walking across the shrine toward the stairs.

Kagome felt like a big piece of herself had been torn from her very being while looking at his dejected posture. She turned around and walked into the house, hanging up her coat and kicking off her shoes. Her chest kept stuttering and she felt like she was going to cry. It was similar to the feeling she got when she became mute, but her body was usually unresponsive to the pressure building inside her. Now, her tears flowed freely down her face. She roughly wiped them away with the backs of her hands and paused in the doorway.

Tonight had been the best night of her entire life. Inuyasha coming into her life and showing her his world and opening up to her with friendship and laughter was so new. She'd never met anyone, not even family, who made her happy like he did. He had such a lovely, playful personality. He made her smile and laugh and talk a lot. He was exciting and competitive and talkative and fun and refreshing. She felt like a completely normal person when she was with him. He brought out the best in her and she was positive that she was starting to fall in love with him.

Before she knew it, she'd taken off outside, running at top speed, not caring that her bare back was exposed to the cold, not caring that her bare feet were scraping against the cold, hard ground. She ran to the staircase and sprinted down it as fast as she could. Inuyasha had just touched the base of the stairs and was now walking to his mother's car. Kagome panted desperately for air as she closed in on him. Her loud breathing alerted him to her presence, and he turned to look at her with a bewildered, curious expression, seeing her in nothing but her dress running at him like a bat out of hell with a flushed face.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask her what was wrong, she bounded into him harshly, causing him to stumble back, but he recovered before they fell, holding her around the waist. As he righted her, he was reminded of the very first time they met, literally crashing into each other. They'd both been so frantic to get to their destinations, only to wind up lost in each other. They held onto each other, staring into each other's eyes before they couldn't take it anymore and she stretched up onto her toes while he leaned down to meet her–their mouths meeting in a fierce embrace.

* * *

 **From this point on in the story, the main focus is the progression of Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship, rather than Kagome's anxiety. I considered changing the summary, but fuck it. _Ya tu sabes_.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **As always, please review, my lovelies. :3**


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